Here's a tip for the luthiers out there...

[Steve A.]

I use a few different triangular files for fret crowning. If you start with a good true fingerboard, it goes quickly. Here's one I completed last week. stewmac wire, medium/tall. 10" fretboard radius.

Looks great! So what are the specs of your triangular files? Do you round off any of the corners or edges?

Do you find the Stew-Mac fretwire to be better than Dunlop or Jescar?

Thanks!

Steve

[Steve A.]

good company!
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Funny story about "non-sterile" tongue depressors...

So what exactly did the authorities not understand about "non-sterile"? It seems to me that for something as sensitive as DNA testing they would spend the extra bucks for the sterile tonque depressors.

One more use of those depressing tongue depressors: I crack them in half lengthwise when mixing up epoxy (after donning my nitrile gloves, of course.) Between both ends of the two halves you usually have something good for mixing the epoxy and something good for applying the epoxy.

I had been using wooden clothespins- I had gotten a pack of 96 really nice ones from Ace Hardware on sale but finally ran out of them. What a waste! I bought some from Big Lots and if you try clipping something thick they go crooked and fall off. So I got some more good ones from Ace Hardware- I guess I could use the Big Lots crap for mixing things...

Steve

[tedmich]

DNA can be sterile, sterile just means at one point the thing has been sterilized by subjecting it to chemical, thermal or radiation sterilization. Like bandages which are traditionally wheeled into autoclaves as big as a house and heated to 252F (121C) for ~30min under 15 psi of steam. The autoclaves are similar to what really big composite structures get heated in, like airplane fuselages.

DNA is harmless,you eat grams of it every day but its used to ID criminals. The wood used for swabs or tongue depressors contains enough DNA to ID its species and even where its from, and is used to ID banned woods like types of rosewood.

[Steve A.]

Speaking of DNA I was just reading about a case in California where an innocent person was accused of murder because his DNA was found at the crime scene. It turns out that he had been picked up drunk earlier that evening and delivered to the county hospital for detox. While enroute they checked his O2 sats with an oximeter on his finger that was used later at the crime scene, and that is how his DNA was found at the crime scene. (He had the perfect alibi- he was in the hospital when the murder was committed.)

Sterile tongue depressors should not have the DNA of factory workers on them- right?

EDIT: I see that "sterile" does not mean "certified for human DNA collection"...

The existence of the Phantom had been doubted earlier, but in March 2009, the case took a new turn. Investigators discovered the DNA sequence on the burned body of a male asylum-seeker in France - an anomaly, since the sequence was of a female. They subsequently came to the conclusion that the mysterious criminal did not exist and that the laboratory results were due to contamination of the cotton buds used for DNA probing. Although sterile, the swabs are not certified for human DNA collection.

The cotton swabs used by many state police departments were found to have been contaminated before shipping. It was found that the contaminated swabs all came from the same factory, which employs several Eastern European women who fit the type the DNA was assumed to match. Bavaria, although a region central to the crimes, obtained their swabs from a different factory. They had no reports of crimes committed by the Phantom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_of_Heilbronn

Steve

[Steve A.]

BTW clothespin halves are great for saving fingers and fingernails in lifting knobs off of guitars and amps. Nothing heavy duty- there are better tools for that. But for knobs that you could remove with just your fingers the clothespin half should work fine...

Steve

[David Schwab]

So do you color-code your left thumb with a black Sharpie so you don't get it confused with your right thumb?

They are all color coded the same!



Goes with the blue hair! lol

[David Schwab]

I use a few different triangular files for fret crowning. If you start with a good true fingerboard, it goes quickly. Here's one I completed last week. stewmac wire, medium/tall. 10" fretboard radius.

That's pretty.

BTW. I notice the larger radius on the pickup routs. Usually its hard to get in the corners because of the diameter of the route bit. The way around this is to use a slightly oversized template and use a template collar on the router bass and a smaller diameter bit.

[tedmich]

nice new look David, congrats on the reboot!

[David Schwab]

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Steve See? Color Coded nails. lol

[David Schwab]

Steve, do you reckon that is the black fingernail Gothic Look?

Yeah, something like that.

[John_H]

Looks great! So what are the specs of your triangular files? Do you round off any of the corners or edges?

Do you find the Stew-Mac fretwire to be better than Dunlop or Jescar?

Thanks!

Steve

Sorry Steve, I meant to get a picture of the files for you. Yes I do smooth the corners to protect the fretboard. The one that I use the most has a wide flat side, and two shorter equal sides.

[Jim Darr]

I use a few different triangular files for fret crowning. If you start with a good true fingerboard, it goes quickly. Here's one I completed last week. stewmac wire, medium/tall. 10" fretboard radius.

Great looking guitar!!!

[Steve A.]

I finally got around to trying this out on a fret leveling job yesterday (one of my own guitars- I'm not going to learn this trade working on other people's instruments!) Two words: simply amazing! One thing really cool about it- if the fret is already properly crowned it just slides by without taking off any metal (try THAT with a file!) In case the picture isn't clear it is the curved surface that has the grit...

Does Stew-Mac or one of the other luthier suppliers sell something like this? With industrial diamond dust commonly embedded in all sorts of tools today it is probably cost-effective for the factories to make a tool specifically for crowning frets. (In talking to people who deal with the factories in China I learned that minimum orders are much smaller than they used to be.)

I have no idea how long the grit on these tools will last so I'm going to order another pair (they make them in 200 and 400 grit.) If these had been around at this price 20 years I'm sure that many of the old pros here would have them in their toolboxes along with their files and other fret tools.

I have a hunch that they are using something like this in the Asian factories that crank out the guitars that sell for $300-400... the ones that have the amazing action which really blows me away. These guitars may have a fret or two that needs to be tapped down but otherwise the frets have been leveled very well. You KNOW that they don't have experienced luthiers working on their assembly lines with their full array of fret tools...


[IMG!]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDgwWDY0MA==/z/NxcAAMXQDDZR1syk/$(KGrHqFHJE4FG)n-SiwiBR1sykUCTw~~60_57.JPG[/IMG]



Steve Ahola

P.S. I read that diamond grit coated tools should be cleaned with rubbing alcohol (if and when they need to be cleaned). If that is the case would it be better to use 70%, 91% or 99%? Speaking of which does anyone know of a good cheap source for 99% rubbing alcohol? I used to buy it at Safeway for a buck or two a pint and IMO it was almost as good as the anhydrous alcohol that was used at Pacific Stereo when I worked there. (You might want to use the real stuff for tape heads...)

[Steve A.]

This arrived the other day and I added a groove on the flat plate to keep it from mangling frets and it works pretty damned good for cutting tangs. The bottom of the fret does need a little touch-up with a file but I'm happy with the results for under $13. (I'd be even happier without the damned shipping charge of $5.95!)



Nickel Plated Nibbling Tool - Nibbler - Amazon.com

I used to see cheap metal nibblers all over the place- perhaps someone can clue me in on a better source.

Steve Ahola

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
Harbor Freight.