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First Time Fretter


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Hello all,

I am about to start my first fret job and first re-fret job as well. Every where I read I see that it is recommended to "slightly" over bend the frets prior to hammering\pressing so the ends will stay better. (I will be hammering by the way) I was going to build the fret bending jig listed here on the site for a 12" radius and was wondering how much tighter to make the jig (for the slight overbend). I was going to go for a 11" radius but thought to ask here first as to what you recommend. Any thoughts?

Thanks

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If you're making the jig that simply holds the fretwired straight as you wrap it around, I'd recomend making it a much smaller radius. I tried that jig and ended up using an 9 inch radius jig for frets that were going on a 12 inch radius fretboard. You may recomend ordering the wire prebent. LMII sells the wire prebent. You can either get it in 2ft pieces or by the roll.

peace,

russ

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the exact radius of the wire isn't terribly important in my opinion..especially if you're hammering them in..the purpose of radiusing the wire is to get the ends to seat before you hammer or press the rest of the fret in so as long as it's more than the radius of the fretboard it should work.

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I totally agree. The 9" jig didn't give me a 9" radius. That's the point. The only thing I was going for was a smaller radius than 12" so the ends would seat well; it ended up taking a jig with a 9" radius to achieve that. I just bought a roll of fretwire from lmii; so I don't need to worry about that anymore.

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You've already figured out that overbending is key. Just be careful how you hammer them in so as not to bend them out of shape. It's actually surprisingly easy to mess that up. I haven't used a fret hammer in a long time for putting them in, but it was always something to keep a close eye on.

Have fun! :D

-Doug

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