MIMF

So I was slotting the fretboard for my explorer today and the mitre jig was working great but I was having a hard time telling how deep that it was cutting so after taking the board out I tried to deepen some of the slots free hand and ended up widening 1 of them badly. I'm guessing that it is about twice the prior width. I've taken the fretboard off of the template and am curious if there's any way to salvage it. The wood wasn't expensive. It's more the sunk time of roughing the radius and the other fret slots on it. I've got jigs to re-do it fairly quickly. I suppose I'm talking myself into redoing it, I just hate to throw away an otherwise good chunk of wood.

I've run into that situation occasionally, and my solution is to epoxy in the fret and run with it.

G.S. Monroe wrote:I've run into that situation occasionally, and my solution is to epoxy in the fret and run with it.

I've done this too. I hate wasting wood.

I might have saved it with some sawdust and superglue. I'll have to check the spacing to make sure it's still kosher. I got it back onto the template by putting the saw into the nut slot on the mitre jig and then taping it down in place

Next time it would be better to use wood instead of sawdust. Strips of veneer are very handy for over-wide fret slots.

noted!

Barry Daniels wrote:Next time it would be better to use wood instead of sawdust. Strips of veneer are very handy for over-wide fret slots.

Would that work on a neck that the frets were put and there was alot of tear out?
I tried pulling frets and darn if i didn't screw up most of the slots to loose.

It was my first attempt and was not a quality neck just did it as a learning experience. But if I could salvage it and do a fret job i could learn more than how not to rip out frets.

did you heat the frets prior to pulling them? they may have been glued down

I did heat the frets but I have recently been told I need a better soldering iron since the radio shack one I have does not get to a high temp. It melts solder just fine, but I was told that I need a much hotter soldering iron for loosening the frets. Was this info correct do I need a 600 watt iron?, and how do you know the fret is hot enough?

I would defer that one to someone with more experience

You don't need a hotter iron but you may need one with more power (watts) to heat the mass of the fret. I have no experience heating frets, but 25-40 watts may not be enough.

My favorite way of heating frets is with a modified soldering iron. I use a pistol-grip type, these are high wattage and they have a tip that is replaceable and screws to the gun at two points. Cut off the end of the tip, and spread it apart so that it will touch a fret near each end.
Now, when you place this tool across a fret it will close the circuit and heat the fret along its entire length, and pretty darn fast too.

Ok I actually own one of those soldering irons so I can try an rig it as you described, I have to wait til the next time I have a junk neck to practice on.

Mark Swanson wrote:My favorite way of heating frets is with a modified soldering iron. I use a pistol-grip type, these are high wattage and they have a tip that is replaceable and screws to the gun at two points. Cut off the end of the tip, and spread it apart so that it will touch a fret near each end.
Now, when you place this tool across a fret it will close the circuit and heat the fret along its entire length, and pretty darn fast too.

That is a great idea!