Home made fret wire former.

[Jason Rodgers]

Do these rollers work on the last 1/2" or so of the wire?

Are there ANY fret benders that solve this waste issue? It drives me nuts to cut off that little piece. (To make myself feel a little better, I save all the cutoffs in the event that I build a segmented-fret or microtonal instrument.)

[Bob Hammond]

Jason, that way lies madness... ask me how I know! I think it's reasonable to keep a piece or two in a junk bin for an odd moment or idea, but really, the cost of fretwire is insignificant as compared to managing a vast collection of minutiae. At the moment, I'm sorting out the Museum of Unfinished Projects to see what I can part with at a garage sale. I've been 'told' to clear the garage for winter.

[Murray MacLeod]

*WARNING : PEDANT ALERT*

. All my fingerboards are conical and each fret has it's own radius. I start with a 2' dia spool of fretwire and open out one end while I try to tighten the radius on the other. (My first fret is around 7" radius and the 24th is 20" or so.)

Dave, I am sure you produce a very elegant compound radius, but at 7" to 20" it won't be "conical" ... leastways not if your nut width works out anywhere between 1 5/8" to 1 7/8".

[David Hutson]

*WARNING : PEDANT ALERT*

. All my fingerboards are conical and each fret has it's own radius. I start with a 2' dia. spool of fretwire and open out one end while I try to tighten the radius on the other. (My first fret is around 7" radius and the 24th is 20" or so.)

Dave, I am sure you produce a very elegant compound radius, but at 7" to 20" it won't be "conical" ... leastways not if your nut width works out anywhere between 1 5/8" to 1 7/8".

When the former is used I don't shoot for the exact radius of the fret board, I normally over bend them slightly as this will help to keep a little extra pressure on the ends of the fret to prevent them from trying to lift due to time and changing, heat, humidity conditions. The consistency of the fret curvature is what we are trying to achieve.

As to bending a 1.625 thru 1.875 radius I would bend a length of 1.625 and 1.750 then straighten to the desired radius for each position on the board, or do it by hand or what ever makes it work for you.
" Need is the mother of invention"

That said, if what your saying is that each individual fret is of a varying radius, this tool obviously cannot perform such duty's. If used at all I guess you could form the general radius with it and then straighten by hand to conform to the board. This tool will only form a nice accurate, smooth continuous radius that's all.
I guess I could get some servos and CNC controls and make something. HA ha.

[Bob Hammond]

Or you could just cinch down/up on an adjustment screw as needed.

[David Hutson]

David, could you post the diameters of the rollers, and layout dimensions.
?

Greg I hope this got on m having trouble posting??

[Clay Schaeffer]

To radius fretwire I pull it through a small notch in the edge of my work bench top, applying a little downward pressure as I do so. A couple of quick passes and it's bent to the approximate radius (judged by eye). One more thing I don't have to track down to use in an already disorganized and cluttered workshop.

[David Hutson]

I left out 1 dimension on the previous drawing this should be complete, none of this is critical the only exception would be to center the tang roller between the anvil rollers.