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I have been installing my frets via drill press with the stew mac caul. I have an old Atlas drill press I really love in which I don't want to ruin. I find I have to really put alot of pressure on it to get it to work well. I am considering an arbor press from Grizzly. They seem fairly affordable. (under 100.00) My question is, Do any of you have experience with the arbor press method? I am trying to decide weather to go with a one or two ton press. The price is not much more. Thanks in advance.

You shouldnt need that much pressure to press the frets Mark - how are you cutting the slots ?? - they may be too narrow for the wire. I too use a drill press and they go in pretty easy, I use Shane's slotting blade to cut the slots

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

When using a press approach, how do you guys handle the frets over the heel and beyond the point where the caul provides support?

We had this one in a previous thread, can't remember whose it was but the whole design seemed very elegant and just made of scrap hardwood and a couple of bolts. The longer the lever the more pressure.



Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Hesh, that thick oily stuff is there to protect the casting from moisture and prevent rusting. It comes on literally every piece of machinery out there that has castings. I'd be more concerned if it didn't have it...

Don Williams39078.5091782407

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Yea read the article by Mario in Guitarmaker. It is an easy system to build and can work on one or two at a time. You can rig it to do with fretboard attached to neck or make a caul for the neck(he dosen't show that but easy to make)

i agree with don regarding the use of grease during shipping. would you like your new tool to arrive with a coating of rust?

that being said this old chestnut about ruining a drill press by pressing in frets seems to come up every month or so. as tony says, if you are having to stress you drill press to press frets you are doing something wrong.

the danger with an arbor press is that if you are insensitive with your touch you can very easily over press them!!

have used both, and perhaps because i learned fretting through the refret aspect of repair work, still prefer my old hammer after the guitar is assembled in the vast majority of cases..crazymanmichael39078.5444907407

[QUOTE=rich altieri] When using a press approach, how do you guys handle the frets over the heel and beyond the point where the caul provides support?[/QUOTE]


Rich, I'm fretting with the drill press, too. I don't have to use that much pressure. I use LMI wire and the LMI fret saw and it works well.   To fret over the heel and FB extension:   I mount the FB to the neck before fretting, then use the caul that Cumpiano shows in his book, under the extension. I fret the entire board with no problem.

I am going to get an arbor press from Grizzly, but I don't think the smaller ones have enough vertical clearance to get the mounted FB under it, so I will probably go with the 1 ton, I think. It might be the two ton. Even 1 ton is certainly overkill but to have enough clearance, it is needed.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Rich, from experience, I can tell you that it is indeed possible to screw up a drill press. though I had a very cheap harbor freight drill press, the linear rack got messed up so now there is a significant "catch" in it. I've been using an arbor press for a couple of years now with great success. One of the problems with them is that if you get a bigger press that allows a neck to fit under the press, you also get a stronger press that will allow you to crush the board. So be pretty careful if you use one. I like to flatten my boards, then fret them off of the neck, then attach them to the neck. It's much easier to fret a board off of a neck than try to wrestle with a neck inside of a press like that.

I carve the neck to finished width at the nut and at the 12th fret. Then install a nut for length. I use those three locations for indexing. In fact, I've never used index pins.

Hesh you can also use cut off staples in the neck. Press the fretboard down onto them, then when the fretboard is being glued to the neck it registers on the staple stubs.

I fret my fingerboard after it's glued to the neck but before I bolt it to the guitar, remember though I don't glue my fingerboard to the top it is glued to a neck extension.

ColinColin S39078.7562615741

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I use index pins. Here's how I do it:

1) Leave the 1st and 11th or 13th slots unfretted
2) Line up the fb perfectly and clamp.
3) Drill a 1/16" trough the 1st fret slot and into the neck on the treble side. NOT TOO DEEP INTO THE NECK
4) Drill a 1/16" hole into the other fret on the bass side the same way.
5) Usethe shaft side of 1/16" bits to align the fb to the neck and glue up with your favorite glue...mine's epoxy. Remove the pins after the glue begins to set.
6) After it's glued up just install the 2 frets.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

My question is does this method help reduce the time required for fret dressing?

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DES - Shepherd, MI

I find that pressing frets results in a much more even fret surface than hammering, and very minimal leveling is required. So yes, it does speed up fret dressing.

I bought my press from a local tool import shop for real cheap. The only modification required was to drill a hole in the bar for the arbor. This wasn't too bad because the steel was pretty soft.