$27.99 dollar home made Fret Press

[Slobrain]

Well,

I found this 1/2 ton Arbor press on sale st Harbor Freight for $27.99 this Saturday and decided to snag one to use on my refrets. I used A 3/8 drill bit for the main shaft hole and drilled a smaller hole and tapped at 6/32 fro the set screw. Used a stewmac fret caul for the fretting.

Check out the pics. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Cheers

[Phostenix]

Me gusta.

[Jag]

I don't know if I'm more jealous of the fret press or the fact that you live somewhere that you can work with the garage door open and a t-shirt at this time of year.

Good job!

[Slobrain]

Hey Fellas,

Actually it was an easy build. These 1/2 ton fret presses are normally around $32.99 at Harbor Freight tools but the Harbor Freight that’s in Pasadena, TX was out so I had to drive to Sugarland, TX to get it which was around an hour from my house.

Drilling the holes wasn't really too hard. The most expensive parts were the Stewmac parts. I still have less than a $100.00 in the total including the brass inserts. The hard part is doing the fret work, not so easy but fun. . I'm getting used to doing them but learning it takes time, plus you have good info from some really good folks here that give excellent info on the do's and don'ts of fretting. John, David and many others are really cool about helping a newbie refretter...

Yeah, Texas weather is sorta strange, one day real cold the next day kinda warm. We don’t see winters here like back in the
70's and 80's. The winters started getting not so cold towards the mid late 90s till now. Global warming I guess is taking its toll...

[jrfrond]

Hey Fellas,

Actually it was an easy build. These 1/2 ton fret presses are normally around $32.99 at Harbor Freight tools but the Harbor Freight that’s in Pasadena, TX was out so I had to drive to Sugarland, TX to get it which was around an hour from my house.

Drilling the holes wasn't really too hard. The most expensive parts were the Stewmac parts. I still have less than a $100.00 in the total including the brass inserts. The hard part is doing the fret work, not so easy but fun. . I'm getting used to doing them but learning it takes time, plus you have good info from some really good folks here that give excellent info on the do's and don'ts of fretting. John, David and many others are really cool about helping a newbie refretter...

Yeah, Texas weather is sorta strange, one day real cold the next day kinda warm. We don’t see winters here like back in the
70's and 80's. The winters started getting not so cold towards the mid late 90s till now. Global warming I guess is taking its toll...

When you purcahse some tools from StewMac, they are obviously modified versions of more mundane items. The fret press is one of them. No reason why you COULDN'T build your own.

One small suggestion: I'd shorten that handle a bit to cut down on your leverage. The flip side of pressing in frets is that you can crush the fingerboard if you are a bit overzealous. In fact, I've always thought that the best way to avoid this would be to scrap the fixed handle altogether and adapt a torque wrench, so that it slips after a certain ft/lb load was reached.

[Slobrain]

When you purchase some tools from StewMac, they are obviously modified versions of more mundane items. The fret press is one of them. No reason why you COULDN'T build your own.

One small suggestion: I'd shorten that handle a bit to cut down on your leverage. The flip side of pressing in frets is that you can crush the fingerboard if you are a bit overzealous. In fact, I've always thought that the best way to avoid this would be to scrap the fixed handle altogether and adapt a torque wrench, so that it slips after a certain ft/lb load was reached.

Thanks for the good idea John, definitally would be better with a torque wrench type handle to exert the exact same pressure to all frets, makes logical sense. Maybe I'll see if I can try to modify that to this press.

One other idea that I want to modify is a handle on one of the bolts on the head to lock it into press position when needing to glue a fret in same a s Stewmac made theirs.

The one thing I have found about replacing frets is it sure requires much patience...

John, Can you recommend a good fret crowning tool?

Thanks

Slo

[jrfrond]

I have a couple of fret crowning files. One is the 3-in-1 version by Michael Gurian with the interchangeable burrs. Another is the diamond type by Stew Mac. Lastly, the good ol' three-corner "safe" file, which is how we did it in the olden days.

The crowning files hog-off a lot of metal, which is good, but cut aggressively and can sometimes leave marks on the frets that are really tough to subsequently sand out. For this reason, I tend to use the crowning files to a certain point and then switch to the three-corner to finish up, which is a smooth, crosscut file pattern that leaves a smoother finish for less work later on. Don't let the diamond ones fool you. Even the fine-grit versions cut pretty deep and can cause you to pull your hair out with the remaining scratches.

The best bet is to arm yourself with several types and develop your own technique. Then you can add "tricks" to your repertoire. The ultimate goal is to have frets that looks like pieces of polished silver jewelry, and along the way, you may find some pretty mundane items that help. Here's one I found just a few years ago. You're never too old or too experienced to learn.

Nailfilestore.com | Flash Shiner Nail Buffer

[David Schwab]

Lastly, the good ol' three-corner "safe" file, which is how we did it in the olden days.

I still use one of those! I made it myself.

I don't care for the files with the crown built in.

[tedmich]

the fret caul is $51.67 alone, plus $27.99 = $79.66

[Slobrain]

the fret caul is $51.67 alone, plus $27.99 = $79.66

Plus add $10.84 for the neck support caul and another $4.45 for the extra brass insert. $94.95, then add shipping too....

Still cheaper than buying their press. But having the fret press doesn't mean a thing till you learn how to use one properly.

Every neck re-fret is different, just like people... Some easy, some not so easy and some are downright a pain...

Just did my third refret recently, it is getting easier but I’m still taking baby steps. One of the most important tools I have is a notched straight edge, I couldn't do a refret without that...

One problem I have encountered is having the fret slots a bit too wide for the fret tang, then having to clamp a wood radius block on the frets popping up and wicking superglue down the fret tang sides. The advice John gave about waxing the fretboard works well too. Darn superglue won't come off if you don’t wax the fretboard.

All in all it’s a time consuming procedure. But having new bigger frets feels good.

Now I need to find who I can buy some Dunlop 6000 fretwire for an old Kramer neck I want to get the scalloped feel on.

One of the guys at Warmoth told me that fret wire has a 20% tolerance from the manufacturer and some batches of wire can be either bigger or smaller than others. Allparts sells some railroad tie fretwire that I so big its probably not to easy to play on but who knows... It does have my curiosity to give it a shot one day.

John, Dave,

I'll try the different files but it looks like I'll need to get the 3 corner safe file and learn that method. I did see a video on You tube of a guy using the 3 side fret file and its an art to learn from what I seen. Looks like it doesn't shave off too much fret metal though and cause too many scratches too.

Slo

[jrfrond]

I don't care for the files with the crown built in.

I'm not totally sold on them either. Ever see the Thomas-Ginex Fret Refinishing System? It's been around a LONG time, and I still have one and love it. You can do the work with the strings still on the guitar! Anyway, it uses a "bumped" plate that holds the abrasive, and as you go back and forth over the frets, the bumps gradually round over the frets. Check it out, it's cool: FretRefinishing.com

You can simulate this in the shop if you don't care to buy the plate. Again, there are countless ways and tricks to arrive at the desired results. I've also uses a buffing wheel on frets. It's all good.

[tedmich]

I'm not totally sold on them either. Ever see the Thomas-Ginex Fret Refinishing System? It's been around a LONG time, and I still have one and love it. You can do the work with the strings still on the guitar! Anyway, it uses a "bumped" plate that holds the abrasive, and as you go back and forth over the frets, the bumps gradually round over the frets. Check it out, it's cool: FretRefinishing.com

You can simulate this in the shop if you don't care to buy the plate. Again, there are countless ways and tricks to arrive at the desired results. I've also uses a buffing wheel on frets. It's all good.

interesting product JFR, I used a epoxy putty mold (over equally think masking tape on a fret) which I then added strips of wet/dry carbide paper which I had sprayed the back with photo mount, I could work down high spots with 220/300/600/1200 and then polish, worked great for that damn high SS fret at 15, and my custom "file" followed the both fret radii

[tmenss]

I'm not totally sold on them either. Ever see the Thomas-Ginex Fret Refinishing System? It's been around a LONG time, and I still have one and love it. You can do the work with the strings still on the guitar! Anyway, it uses a "bumped" plate that holds the abrasive, and as you go back and forth over the frets, the bumps gradually round over the frets. Check it out, it's cool: FretRefinishing.com

You can simulate this in the shop if you don't care to buy the plate. Again, there are countless ways and tricks to arrive at the desired results. I've also uses a buffing wheel on frets. It's all good.

The thing about diamond tools is not only are they very sharp even with tiny grit size but the grit doesn't fracture, as would silicon carbide or even better aluminum oxide, as in tedmich's approach with replaceable papers. This causes distinct gouging patterns that can be difficult to polish out without additional grits. The T-G toolset is misunderstood because it seems counterintuitive but it is a simple and effective approach to the crowning process. I use a similar method with much narrower versions of the toolset and have the flexibility of selecting abrasives suitable to the profiling requirements.

[David Schwab]

the fret caul is $51.67 alone, plus $27.99 = $79.66

Wow that got expensive. I bought one of those like 17 years ago. I picked up a used arbor press at a used machine shop pretty cheap. I think it was like $10.

[David Schwab]

I'm not totally sold on them either. Ever see the Thomas-Ginex Fret Refinishing System? It's been around a LONG time, and I still have one and love it. You can do the work with the strings still on the guitar! Anyway, it uses a "bumped" plate that holds the abrasive, and as you go back and forth over the frets, the bumps gradually round over the frets. Check it out, it's cool: FretRefinishing.com

You can simulate this in the shop if you don't care to buy the plate. Again, there are countless ways and tricks to arrive at the desired results. I've also uses a buffing wheel on frets. It's all good.

Yes, I owned that system! I bought it way back when it first came out; late 70s I think. I still had it until the last time we moved, when I lost a box of guitar parts and other stuff.

I used that all the time. It worked great. I think I'll pick one of these up!