Home made fret wire former.

[David Hutson]

This was easy to make and forms a perfect smooth continuous radius. Except for the fret wire tang guide/roller it was easy to obtain parts. Bolts, bearings and some flat plate. This is a little bit overkill but it is what I had laying around at the time. 1/4 plate, plexi, hardwood could be used for the base, bearings do not need to be high quality any smooth free rolling bearing/bushing would do. The roller with the tang groove was turned on a lathe and is a light press fit on the bearing race. Remember to keep your tang guide roller dia. smaller the the smallest radius you intend to form. The mount hole for the tang guide roller/bearing is slotted to allow adjustment for the required radius.
This was done on a mill, but with minimum layout skills, a drill press and hand tools, it is easy to make minus the tang roller it's a work shop project. If you would like to build one and have any questions feel free to ask.

[Simon Magennis]

Looks pretty cool. Please excuse my ignorance on this point. What is the purpose of the former? Is the object to bend the wire or to straighten it?
I have often seen such items for sale but I am not clear on their use. I buy wire on a 5m or 10m roll and I just straighten it out a bit with my fingers and my wire clipper when I cut off a length to use. Regards. Simon

[Gordon Bellerose]

Looks pretty cool. Please excuse my ignorance on this point. What is the purpose of the former? Is the object to bend the wire or to straighten it?
I have often seen such items for sale but I am not clear on their use. I buy wire on a 5m or 10m roll and I just straighten it out a bit with my fingers and my wire clipper when I cut off a length to use. Regards. Simon

This fret bender is to bend a consistent radius in fret wire that comes straight.
I buy fret wire from stewmac, and it comes in a straight plastic tube, in about 30 inch lengths.
I have the commercial bender, and it looks very much like this one.

Good job David!

[Simon Magennis]

Thanks Gordon. That clears up something that has puzzled me for ages. I have always had wire from a roll.

[Bob Hammond]

I wish I had your metalworking skills. This has worked for me, from stuff around the place and some patio door rollers. The flathead screw adjusts the radius of curvature for the fretwire. The thumbnut (on the screw) and the wingnut (on the 1/4-20 bolt that serves as the axle of the grooved roller) holds the radius setting. The yoke for the axle of the the adjustable roller is a 1/4-20 barrel nut (as is used for bolt-on neck joints). It slides up & down in a ~3/8" hole, with a stiff spring underneath it and the adjustment screw above it.

Simple, adjustable, and effective.

[Bob Hammond]

To groove the adjustable roller to fit the tang of the fretwire, I think that I chucked the roller (on the axle bolt) in a drill and then cut the groove with a Zona saw or knife (I can't quite remember, at the moment.)

[David Hutson]

Gordon Bellerose,
I don't buy quantities of wire but what I do buy is in 30" straight lengths, as to what it does as apposed to bending wire by hand or pliers is form a uniform concentric radius in the wire. You can feed through a 30" or what ever length section of wire and just cut into sections as needed to fit the board with the uniform radius already formed. I will normally over bend the radius a little smaller than the fret board they are to be installed on, this will help prevent the fret ends from trying to pull up with time, humidity and temp changes. If the frets are pressed in using a radius block that matches the fret board radius and not hand bent with pliers and hammered in, I have found that the finale leveling work is much easier and the amount of new fret lost in the setup of the instrument is considerably less, provided the fret board they were installed in was flat and true in the first place.
Do you have to have one ? No. But I do think they make the job faster easier and more professional looking when closely inspected. If I did a whole lot of fret work I would like a box of pre cut pre radius wire ready to install.

[David Hutson]

I wish I had your metalworking skills. This has worked for me, from stuff around the place and some patio door rollers. The flathead screw adjusts the radius of curvature for the fretwire. The thumbnut (on the screw) and the wingnut (on the 1/4-20 bolt that serves as the axle of the grooved roller) holds the radius setting. The yoke for the axle of the the adjustable roller is a 1/4-20 barrel nut (as is used for bolt-on neck joints). It slides up & down in a ~3/8" hole, with a stiff spring underneath it and the adjustment screw above it.

Simple, adjustable, and effective.

Bob Hammond
like I said mine is probability a bit overkill. If it forms a nice radius that's all that counts. I didn't provide for the screw feed adjustment, the tang roller is on a 1/2 in. bolt in a slot you move it by hand and then lock it back down.
I have been a tool and die maker for 35 yrs and have collected my share of left over extras, I'm pretty sure it will outlast me.

[David Hutson]

Gordon Bellerose,
I don't buy quantities of wire but what I do buy is in 30" straight lengths, as to what it does as apposed to bending wire by hand or pliers is form a uniform concentric radius in the wire. You can feed through a 30" or what ever length section of wire and just cut into sections as needed to fit the board with the uniform radius already formed. I will normally over bend the radius a little smaller than the fret board they are to be installed on, this will help prevent the fret ends from trying to pull up with time, humidity and temp changes. If the frets are pressed in using a radius block that matches the fret board radius and not hand bent with pliers and hammered in, I have found that the finale leveling work is much easier and the amount of new fret lost in the setup of the instrument is considerably less, provided the fret board they were installed in was flat and true in the first place.
Do you have to have one ? No. But I do think they make the job faster easier and more professional looking when closely inspected. If I did a whole lot of fret work I would like a box of pre cut pre radius wire ready to install.

[Bob Hammond]

Maybe I'll gussy mine up by cutting of the flathead and then putting on a nice shiny chrome acorn nut. But adding a nylock wingnut would be overkill.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the 10-32 screw passes through a threaded brass insert placed in the hole. The screw would probably hold the setting without the thumbnut, but what the heck, the thumbnut adds just a bit more security. (By the way, I must have been thinking about something else when I assembled the bender the last time --- the thumbnut is upside down!)

[Greg Steil]

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

[David King]

Do these rollers work on the last 1/2" or so of the wire? That's always been my problem with fine tuning a fret's curvature. 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.) I have to fine-tune the far ends with a pair of notched needle-nosed pliers and that's a bit time-consuming.

[David Hutson]

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

[David Hutson]

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

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

[Gordon Bellerose]

David,

I have the commercial machine sold by our friends at Stewmac.
I was expaining to Simon what the machine does. Apparaently he gets his fret wire in a roll, and has to straighten it before installation, whereas I buy wire in a straight tube.

Still a good job, especially on that grooved roller.

Gord

[David Hutson]

[img][img][/img][/img] Gordon Bellarose, Tried to post again hope it works, I will figure this out eventually.

[David Hutson]

[quote="David Hutson"] Gordon Bellarose, This is a face book link of drawing try this.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 866&type=1

[David King]

David Hutson,

To display images in your post you'll need to use the "Full Editor" option. Once that larger window has opened up, scroll down to the next set of boxes below the main window.
Where is says "Filename" on the left click the "Choose File" button which will open a dropdown navigation window that allows you to find the photo (jpg, png, gif formats) on you hard drive or desktop. Select that or photo and upload it. Add any text you want to appear below the image. Hit the "Add file" button and wait for it to upload. Lastly post your message by clicking the bold "Submit" button.

[David Hutson]

David Hutson,

To display images in your post you'll need to use the "Full Editor" option. Once that larger window has opened up, scroll down to the next set of boxes below the main window.
Where is says "Filename" on the left click the "Choose File" button which will open a dropdown navigation window that allows you to find the photo (jpg, png, gif formats) on you hard drive or desktop. Select that or photo and upload it. Add any text you want to appear below the image. Hit the "Add file" button and wait for it to upload. Lastly post your message by clicking the bold "Submit" button.

Thanks David King I will do that.

[David Hutson]

Do these rollers work on the last 1/2" or so of the wire? That's always been my problem with fine tuning a fret's curvature. 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.) I have to fine-tune the far ends with a pair of notched needle-nosed pliers and that's a bit time-consuming.

I normally sacrifice the lead in and off sections of fret wire, as far as the compound radius goes, you should be able to adjust for any radius desired.