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Hello,

I posted this in the ukulele forum where I’ve been posting pics in a build thread, but I thought I would share here too because it could be useful for any small bodied instrument, not just ukulele.

I press frets using a Jaws2 and a Nemo1. The Nemo1 was born out of this thread from our friend Dave Farmer.

fixing Jaws 2
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic? ... source=app

He’s not around on the OLF as much anymore but there are a ton of gems in his previous posts.

If the big guy is Jaws2 then this has to be Nemo1. SM should sell this and give me royalties.

As I mentioned this idea came from a post where David Farmer replaced the knock off Bessey clamp on the Jaws2 with a real one. Making the press screw into something compatible with the SM clamping caul is pretty straight forward. What I’m doing here is making a second clamp from the smallest Bessey clamp. This let’s me fret the last few frets in a small sound hole like a uke.

First I have to remove the pin in the handle. I filed the pin head flat so that I can drill it out easier on the drill press. I used some scraps to try to square it up.



Pop the cap off with pliers.







I used an 1/8” dowel to encourage the pin out with a hammer.





Pull out the press screw with pliers.



This is what we are trying to replicate. The pin is 6.25mm with a slot cut that is 4.5mm. The slot is where the plastic set screw goes on the SM caul.





Drilled a hole in the waste board so I can sink the press screw down and cut the slot using the files edge.







Cut off the tip that was originally there with a hacksaw and file it flat in the drill press.





Looks good.





I used steel pop rivets to put the handle back on.



I also trim the nose off just a bit so that it can get closer to the neck block. This helps with getting to reach as many frets as possible. I learned about the stubby Jaws2 from Dave and Hesh in their fretting class.





I use a cut down version of the SM clamping caul so it can go in and out of the smaller sound hole.



It’s a little fiddly to get it all set up through the sound hole but once set up it works great!



Hope that is useful.

Brad


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Looks "factory" Great job!

Indeed! Very nice.

Nicely done Brad.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like it, WTG Brad!

Pat

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Pat

Looks like just what I need. Great work!!!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust