Fret Bender

[Dave Bagwill]

I saw this on the cigar box nation website, no explanation given. It looks to me like it could work, with the disc at the right radius and just a bit smaller than needed to allow for springback.
How do you suppose the wire is actually bent around that disk?

[Dave Bagwill]

Found this at Crimson Guitars:
Below is a picture of my home made fret bender. It is a 6" or 152mm diameter piece of plywood with a groove cut around the circumference to keep the tang aligned. Two screws are put into the side of it to hold the end of the fret wire. You just slide the end of the fret wire under the screws and bend it around. If you run out of room to bend the wire, just slide it farther under the screws and keep bending. This size may produce a smaller radius than some might prefer. If so, just make the disc of plywood larger.


Edit: for a 16" radius fb, that's a 32" diameter circle. Don't think that's practical, dang it.

[dave d]

It's hard to beat the simplicity of that tool. This one isn't quite as simple, but not too complicated either. Actually Crimson sells a similar (but much more precise to adjust) bender. I made this with a few bolts, nuts, bearings and collars, and assorted scrap wood. Well worth the few hours it took to run around and buy the hardware, drill some holes, and put it together.

DBD_2251.JPG (60.35 KiB) Viewed 600 times

DBD_2252.JPG (49.82 KiB) Viewed 600 times

The tang of the fretwire gets caught in the space between the two collars.

DBD_2253.JPG (46.85 KiB) Viewed 600 times

There's a slot in the aluminum piece that lets me move the left bearing to allow for different radii. You could modify the design to accomplish that in other ways (like the one Crimson sells).

DBD_2254.JPG (48.68 KiB) Viewed 600 times

DBD_2255.JPG (56.03 KiB) Viewed 600 times

DBD_2256.JPG (63.44 KiB) Viewed 600 times

DBD_2258.JPG (60 KiB) Viewed 600 times

[Dave Bagwill]

I've got to think that yours is quite a bit more precise than the wooden disc. So go right ahead an make one for me and send 'er along. I'd do it myself but I don't have the birdseye maple, dagnab it!