Official Luthiers Forum!

I was wondering which fret nipper is the best to buy?

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I have the first edition half price carbide cutter tipped Allied luthier specials page end nipper cutter (yeah thats a mouthfult to say three times fast) ... I CANT use anything else anymore, they are far superior to any plier/side cutters I have used.

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

Tony, can you link to that...I couldn't find it on the Allied site. Thanks.

Bill

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

StewMac has a nipper for $43.

LMI has a filing jig for $110 used on Stainless or Nickel wire.

Allied apparently doesn't offer one on the website, or it's hard to find, not under tools or on the specials pages. ?

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

The Allied nipper is a great value at $30ish and a better cutter for the purpose than even a good brand of hardware store end cutters.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Are we talking fret nipper, or fret TANG nipper?

I have the stew mac one and i like it. I was using one that i made from a pair of channel lock nipper that i filed the face down flat. Was starting to wear down so i replaced it with the stew mac. The problem with grinding your own is that the heat from the grinding starts to anneal the metal and it lose's its original hardness.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

[QUOTE=FishtownMike] The problem with grinding your own is that the heat from the grinding starts to anneal the metal and it lose's its original hardness.[/QUOTE]

I always keep an old coffee can full of water next to my sander and grinder and cool my tool steel down often. I dunk every few seconds on small stuff. If it changes color at all the edge will be junk before you use it.

Oh, and I have the Allied nippers and I love them too. I use the S.M. under cutters for bound boards. The S.M. cutters will undercut stainless but will be trashed when the job is done!

I gotta make me one of those Frank Ford rigs for filing the undercut on SS.


Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

TANG. I was talking tang. yep.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

well, you didnt specify originally so .. to clarify, I use the stew mac tang nipper, the Allied cutter.

The Allied cutters used to be on page 4 or 5 of the weekly specials .. might be sold out. They were 30 bucks, and are killer evnen thought they are going to refine them

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

I bought the Frank Ford one the second it came out at the GAL convention (I had to pry it from Chris's hands) it is great and fun to use. A little pricier but the time it saves pays for itself the first time you use it.
Best, Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

I was talking about this tool for undercutting fretwire ends.

I have a real nice hardware store set of end cutters made by Challenger, work great very strong for fretwire cuts to length.

Also, I took a cheap Chinese end cutter and ground it sharp for pulling frets. They work well when the cutting edge is moved outward by grinding away the excess cutter.

Now I see why the thread was confusing, multiple tools and terminology.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Actually mine came from Radio Shack. All these things really are is sheet metal nippers. I don't think Radio Shack carries these any more since they are slowly getting out of the electronic hobbyist market. But a good electric service supply house will have them, at least one that caters to electronic manufacturing market.

I heard a few years ago that the StewMac tang nipper is very similar to a tool that has been around a long time for cutting HO style model railroad track. But the StewMac tool works fine, and time is money.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

After you cut the tang with the SM nipper is there anything left under the fret to file down?

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

is there anything left under the fret to file down?

Only if you're very, very anal...

I might be.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Well then just call me anal Dave... no no Dave Anal sounds better

Bruce I use the fret tang nippers from SM and they work great.

I do go ahead and dress the bottom of the fret with a file but as Mario said that realy isn't necessary, it just gives me that warm fuzzy feeling

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

They leave about .002-.004" of tang. The only reason this happens is because any extruded part has a small radius wherever there is a plane change. This radius forces the cutter blade to the tangent of that radius. This radius on frets is about .002-.004" Therefore there will be .002-.004" of material left

Mr. Forster seemed unconcerned about the residual to the tang cut, pounding away on those frets like he was working on a deck. I guess a 2 to 5 thousandths dent in the Fretboard will work too.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I have an "Adel" nibbler tool which is pretty much the same as the Stew Mac nipper. (I had to file a groove in the anvil part to accommodate the edge of the fretwire.) They're available at aircraft tool suppliers. The anvil section of the stewmac tool is much nicer than mine & it does a cleaner job.

I ordered a tang nipper from some eBay guy, and I think the version I have is actually those railroad/hobby store nippers. They work, but about every 3rd snip they literally bend the end of the fretwire just the slightest amount, so I end up discarding a few pieces every fret job...highly annoying.

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

Bruce, the Stew Mac tang nippers are the ones you tried out when you visited me a while back. They work great!

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Dave, that seals it. The StewMacNibbler it is. I'm glad you said that, because I'd forgotten. The YouTube Forster videos got me going on this even for unbound boards. I'm in.   

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com