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I'm in the process of my first refret and need some help. After resetting the neck and truing the finger board, I've hammered in all the frets but am worried that in their now oversized and somewhat tattered slots they need to be glued. For those of you in the habit of using cyano as an extra measure of integrity on your frets, do you mind sharing your process and secrets with me?
I have used cyano to glue down fret ends twice before on new builds, but each time had way too much mess to clean up. There must be a few secrets I'm missing. Is there something I can apply to the finger board to make clean up easier? And are there any clamping secrets? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Phil

Phil, i'm in no way an expert on this but i've read here that you can use a very tiny beads of Titebond to secure the frets in the slots, it's waterbase nature swolens the wood and kind of locks the tangs in the slots.
for the clean up, i used a razor blade to scrape the little squeeze out i had when fretting my no 2.

Hope this helps

Serge

I put he nozzle of the CA bottle on the end of the slot and let it seep in VERY slowly. Don't force it or it squidges out.

+1 on the razor blade.....

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

     Glueing in frets can me a rather messy undertaking. I found that 5 minute epoxy works well for me. I will sand the board and allow the dust to collect in the slots.
     I will then wax the board with carnuba wax. Then I apply epoxy to the fret slots and the wax allows me to clean this up an the dust will help fill voids.
    I then clamp the frets to the board and let set a few minutes and scrape off the epoxy. be sure that the cawl you use matches the fret board radius.
john hall

The CA manufacturers sell extension tips for more precice application of their glues. They are usually packed in packs of 3-5 and are disposable cheap. Proper use of these will reduce your cleanup to near zero.

Al

Tiny little amount; ditto on the razor blade.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Just be very careful. I used CA on my first fretboard and wasn't thinking about where my other hand was. Well, it was holding the fretboard directly across from where I was wicking in the CA. This, of course, was at 10:00 PM and I had no acetone...I did get some funny looks at 7-11...

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

for a finer application of ca, get some of the soft plastic pipettes s-m and others sell. looks like a 1 1/2" long tube with an elongated nozzle.

the trick is to stretch the nozzle which reduces the diameter of the hole, then cut to a convenient length. suck up some ca and apply.

and keep some debonder at hand.

You've got to see Frank Ford do a fret job. He demos this frequently at GAL and ASIA conventions, and other events as well, I think.

In a nutshell, he wicks in a little CA, then immediately wipes off excess with a small piece of paper towel (the blue shop towel type) wetted with acetone. Hard to capture the finesse with which he does this in words, but it works beautifully - you just gotta see it.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Phil,

I do this quite often on refrets.
Turn the neck frets down, then using thin CA, just touch the tip to the end of the fret tang, prior to flush cutting. It will wick down the length of the fret.(Keep some small pieces of paper towel handy in case you over do it.)
By facing the neck down, if you do use too much CA, it won't run down the back of the neck! (Yes, I once found out the hard way ).
A few drops per side seems to work well without over-doing it.

Paul

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

[QUOTE=1bordeaux].
Turn the neck frets down[/QUOTE]
D'oh (poster slaps forehead)!!! Fretboard down...brilliant!!!

[QUOTE=CarltonM] [QUOTE=1bordeaux].
Turn the neck frets down[/QUOTE]
D'oh (poster slaps forehead)!!! Fretboard down...brilliant!!! [/QUOTE]

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

Frank Ford is a memebr of the OLF right? you really should PM him or something.
i have a GAL issue in which he demonstrates how he does fret-jobs.
ill dig it out and see if theres something in there that hasnt yet been mentioned here.

Udi.

Phil,
I'm with John in the epoxie camp.
I make a tool out of bent guitar wire to apply it though. It guides the epoxie into the slot without getting it all over the fret board.
Use about an 015 or so.
No muss, no fuss.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Hey Todd,
I started using the acetone trick after I saw Frank do it last year at ASIA. It is so clean its ridiculous, no more wax or cleaning and it takes less than 1 second. I highly suggest it.
Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

An extra fine capillary extension on a pipette. or you can carefully stretch the capillary on a pipette to make it tighter at the exit. It will want to curl on you a bit but this is kind of handy to control the flow.

thanks for all the help guys.
i checked out franks 'fret.com' site and looked at the few pics he's got there. and i just bought some thin cyano, acetone, and accelerator. but i nipped the overhang before reading the post about that. oops.
anyway, wish me luck.
sure wish i had a one or two minute video to watch - maybe frank doing his thing at a workshop. a picture is a thousand words. but watching someone do something in real time is worth a gadzillion.
thanks again.
phil

[QUOTE=Evan Gluck] Hey Todd,
I started using the acetone trick after I saw Frank do it last year at ASIA. It is so clean its ridiculous, no more wax or cleaning and it takes less than 1 second. I highly suggest it.
Evan[/QUOTE]

I am not familiar with the acetone trick.... can you 'splain please?   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Sure Brock I will "splain" Just wick some CA under the fret and have a paper towel with some acetone on it to quickly wipe the fretboard. It makes it very clean with no cleanup of excess glue. Don't use too much acetone if you have binding.
Hope this helps,
Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

Oh... simple enough. I was thinking you were treating the fb somehow. Thanks.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

No Brock, no treatment or wax its like one of those obvious "I should have thought of that years ago" things that Frank just exudes like I do mistakes .
If you have never seen his refret demo in person it is so worth it. I had been doing fretwork for years before I saw him last year at ASIA and it changed many things that I used to do and also sped things up too. He is truly MacGuyver but he has not been cancelled
Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com