Over the past couple of days I have been continuing to fit the frets. I was finding it slow going until I realised the slots were a little too narrow so I carefully widened them by moving the saw a little left and right in each of the slots.
Finally I'm getting somewhere now, It's the same with most jobs required to build a guitar, it takes practice and a little improvisation to find the best way to do something.
All the frets are now fitted to the neck, there is a little over hang on each side so I need to file the frets flush and to a 45 degree angle.
I used my home-made fret leveller and beveller to do the job, the file makes short work of the overhang.
The neck is really starting to take shape now and looking so professional.
Next I need to level the frets. I will take my time and make sure the frets are level across the whole width of neck. I want to make sure there are no high or low spots on the neck which will cause issues later.
After a short time it becomes apparent where the high and low spots are as the blue ink either starts to disappear on the higher spots or linger on the lower frets.
Once I was happy and notices I was removing blue ink from each fret taped between the frets to protect the fingerboard and started crowning the frets. Once again I drew a blue line on each fret and then used a 3 sided file to bring a sharp high point on each fret.
Finally I used my dremel to polish up the frets, I use a small buffing wheel and a little abrasive compound. I then removed the tape protecting the fretboard to reveal the almost finished neck.
Wow! I think it has come out looking great. I have a little filling to do on the ends of each fret slot and a little around the last fret marker. I will mix some sawdust and wood glue to squeeze into all the gaps.
After that I will mark up for the machine heads and then carve the back of the neck. Nice to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.
No comments:
Post a Comment