An experiment that worked well

[Dave Bagwill]

I've done two things that have worked very well to make my fretting easier.
First, I puchased the 'fret barber' from stewmac, and use it to shave the barb from (in this case - LMII gold frets) a .030" width to a .025" width. My fret slots are .023".
This takes a minute or two for a 2' length of fretwire. There is plenty of barb to get a good purchase on the fretboard, pressing the frets in is easy, and I get no back-bow on the fb. This means that I rarely have to do any leveling or crowning.

Second, I found, online, an easy method for doing the semi-hemispherical fret ends. It uses a dremel tool, a 1/8" ball-end dremel bit, and some abrasive-impregnated silicone discs. Chuck the disc on a mandrel and chuck that into the dremel, then use the bit to cut a groove into the disc.

So the procedure is:

Barber the fretwire.
Cut the frets to length.
Feed the fret into the prepared disc - (which takes 10 minutes of practice to get the hang of) - and round the ends. An entire fretboard takes about 10 minutes for this step.
At this point, before pressing in the frets, I make sure the fb surface is just as I like it, the slots have been chamfered etc.
Press in the frets.
Put a drop of CA at each end of the frets
Fill the remaining slot.
Then any polishing I want to do, maybe a coat of Dr. Duck's Ax Wax.

I'm done at this point. The frets are super-comfortable, and I follow the gypsy makers in making sure the ends to don't protrude past the edges of the fingerboard at all.
A few pix attached. I have not yet pressed them in, and you may see some magic marker remains that I will be wiping off.
The discs cost me $10 for 100 of them, and I used only one for this entire fretboard. They are about a 320 grit, work quickly, and leave a nice surface.

[Dave Bagwill]

Forgot to picture a step.
Before rounding the ends, I nip off a wee bit of the tang, then sand any remaining tang smooth.

[John Parchem]

very cool setup

[Kevin in California]

Dave, how does the fret barber work? On my last fretboard I hand filed the barbs down some as I was having a tough time getting them to go in the ebony board. I'd not had an issue before and then I found out that the wire I'd gotten from LMI was not the same as I've been getting for years. Anyway I liked the result, much easier to install, so please give me the skinny on how your deal works thanks.

[Dave Bagwill]

Very simple, Kevin. The barber has two files that are oriented via arrows printed on them; they fit in the holder and a shim that is the size of the barb width of your fret material is inserted, and the knob on the holder is turned to tighten it up.
Take a 2' length or so of fret material, use a glove on your strong hand (I'm a righty), insert the material into the slot formed by the shim, and using the left hand to hold the material into the slot - which is curved - just pull it through once or twice. Then use the next thinner shim, and work your way down to the barb width you desire. I started at .030" which was the original fretwire, stepped down to .028, .026 and then .024 as my slots were actually about .022 . It takes about a full minute or two.
There are shims in the supplied set that are larger than .030 and smaller than .020 as well. It works a treat...

[Kim Hillard]

Dave, what is that gizmo in the photo next to the fret with the nipped tang? Is is a real true to life fret cutter of some kind? What is is that you use to notch the fret ends? I'm curious as I've just created my first fretboard and am not terribly happy with the results. I can't in good conscience use it.

[Dave Bagwill]

Hi KIm - I made that using Ken's method here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=84

Works very well. Mainly useful for fretting bound fretboards, but I've discovered it works well for this new method I"m using.

Good luck!!