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Fretboards seem to be my nemesis. Don't know why. Every other step of the process is enjoyable and fun. But fretboards are not making me a happy at the moment. Mainly because I keep having the same problem. It's gotta be my technique or my tools. Pretty sure it's my technique though.

The problem I keep running into is when radiusing the board. I've even had to scrap a fretboard once because I had taken so much material off of it that it was no longer usable. I keep getting a twist. For instance, the one that brought me to post this topic currently has unlevel spots. I try to level them out but the block ends up contacting another part of the board (I think) and making it too low. And this ends up skewing the block once I get to that section. I've been measuring all 4 corners every so often to track progress. But the results are slow and often not what I expected. I have over 1/16" left to play with but I'm hesitant to keep moving forward until I have a better game plan because the one I've been following doesn't seem to be working.

Any tips?

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

If you're not using a fence, it can help. Some people put fences on either side of the block to make sure it rides straight. I also find that I tend to bear down harder on one side of the board than then other, so I try to switch sides periodically. It's not as easy as it seems.

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David Morris

Not sure this helps you, but you say you're tracking all four corners. Well the two corners at the nut end should be the same but the two corners at the saddle end will be lower. That is if you're using a constant radius, the cord length is longer due the taper of the fingerboadr therefore the cord height is more making the fret board thinner at the edges as you move up fingerboard. Don't fight this, it's the way it is if you're using a constant radius.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Thanks guys. All great info. All stuff I was aware of though. I tried the rail method several times and it is better but still didn't do it for me. It's also a square blank. Not tapered yet, only slotted. Got a new Japanese fret saw and just couldn't resist. What a difference! I decided to try radiusing prior to tapering for the very reasons stated above. It certainly does help, too.

Anyway... So now here's my chance to give back. I figured it out. The blank was run through my planer subsequent to resawing so I knew it was flat. What I did was double stick tape it to a square steel tube from HD that I ground dead flat at one point. Or at least flat enough. I coupled that with the advice on the Stewmac website about clamping an aluminum radius beam in my vice abrasive side up. From there, I was very careful to keep it centered. After a while, it wasn't difficult to do so because the board naturally sank into the radius that it was beginning to share with the beam. That SOB is dead flat now. The best I've ever done by a long shot. They suggest doing this once it is on the neck but the steel tube is better because it doesn't flex like a real neck.

I'm also going to press frets in for the first time once it is installed on the neck. Should be pretty solid, I figure.

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."