Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm sure this is old news to many or most of you, but I just found this website for calculating fret positions for single or multiple scale fretboards with downloadable DXF/PDF/etc. files for anyone using CNC. https://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/

I'm old and slow in discovering stuff these days, but maybe this will be news to some more of you too. Pretty danged impressive.

Dave

Yes I agree that it's an immensely useful site. Impressive and flexible and accurate and well worth using.

I used it for years until I figured out how to duplicate its functionality directly in Rhino3D by programming in Grasshopper. The effort this required made me appreciate FretFind2D even more.

I use it too. You can input about any parameter you want from scale to distance of 1st and 6th string to edge of fingerboard, nut and saddle width, etc.

Then print it full scale on multiple sheets of paper and have a full size printout of your project.

Sometimes you have to adjust the printer scale to get a perfect match on paper by a percent or two.

I use it for almost every instrument.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Never saw that before. I've been dividing by the 12th root of 2, and subtracting from the scale. That makes it too easy. I'd only need the first square. I have no clue what use any of the other numbers are. Compensating for angle? It's within less than .0005. 10 times that would be fine, I would think.

I make it with a pencil, and cut it by hand in a little box. I do check it before I cut it all the way down.

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Why be normal?

Any tips on gluing the pattern to the wood? Even a single sheet seems difficult to do without warping/stretching when wet with glue, much less getting two sheets perfectly aligned.

I still do it the old fashioned way, laying a ruler along the high and low string paths and marking the fret locations with an x-acto knife, and then clamping a wood block at each pair of marks to hold the saw against while cutting. But even with 1/64" graduations on the ruler, I may be off by a few thousandths when marking, and a few more when clamping the wood block. After developing a feel for how troublesome a single thousandth error is in metalworking, I wish I'd designed my CNC to have enough Y range for fret slotting

But on the other hand, I do like to keep guitar building as a low-tech activity for when I'm tired of all the computers and electricity.

The stability of paper is a problem Dennis. Even if not wet with glue. Never tried to track paper size during humidity swings but I imagine in fretboard lengths it could be measurable. Print it, check it, use it is probably best.

I print mine on glossy photo paper as I expect it is more durable and maybe less reactive to moisture but I have no proof of that.

I usually do incomplete, but full size PENCIL drawings of important guitar stuff like nut to bridge, sound hole, neck angle... I like the fingerboard printout to check my drawing accuracy. Old school guy who still likes pencils, T-squares and triangles.

I have not taped or glued them down to saw through. I have used the printouts to make lexan notched fret templates like the steel ones StuMac sells but I just tape them down and transfer marks for the notches. I built a fret saw using a mini sliding cutoff saw with the stumac steel templates.

I haven't used Fret2d for multi-scale but will at some point, have not looked into that.

I wouldn't want to glue down just cause I wouldn't want the cleanup. Maybe the CA to painters tape trick would work.

My preference would probably be to tape down the paper strip and mark slot locations with a sharp awl and draw them in for cutting.

I've seen enough of your work Dennis, you'll figure out something for sure.

There are enough margins on the printout so you can overlap making taping 2 strips together not a big issue. Biggest PITB is adjusting printer scale so it matches the scale length perfectly.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I do mine in Grasshopper too, and like you knowing the effort that went into my fretboard program, I do appreciate FretFind2D a lot. I do some Van Eps (Fred) style flush fret, scalloped boards, and they take a bit of work to model. Grasshopper really helped on that front! If I had found the FretFind site earlier, I might have never done the work in Grasshopper, so I'm glad I was late to the party.

Dave