Fret Cutter

[mattharris75]

Not too far away from fretting my first neck, and looking at the price of tools to do the job. $30 for a fret cutter seems a little high. I expect to use this tool no more than twice a year and would rather pay less up front and have to replace it somewhere down the line if neccessary. Is there a less expensive alternative that works well? Has anybody used side cutters for cutting their fret ends?

[biliousfrog]

I've got a pair of nippers which I ground down many years ago on a belt sander (obviously not made from the hardest metal)...I did it originally to pull out broken off nails from reclaimed timbers & they also work for fret ends. They're not great for cutting through a full fret but they work well for tang-less frets when using binding.

For cutting rough lengths, a Dremel works well but be careful because the fret wire will get very hot!

[mattharris75]

Yeah, i'm mostly concerned with trimming the ends flush. I have a dremel, so the rough cutting will be no problem. I asked about side cutters because I already have a pair of those. It couldn't hurt to have a pair of end cutters regardless, but it seems like they're nearly double the price they should be from Stew Mac. And how critical is the flat face to getting a flush cut?

[biliousfrog]

Frets are a pain to file flush, those few extra mm will take a fair bit of effort to file down & if you start to get impatient you could damage the neck, fingerboard or frets.

flush cutters aren't unique to luthiery despite what some people would have you believe but The price of the Stew Mac ones isn't overly expensive, especially as they are quite heavy duty. These are very cheap but I don't know whether they'd be strong enough to cut fret wire:

http://wire-sculpture.com/items/G2_16.php

http://wire-sculpture.com/items/G2_59.php

[mattharris75]

Yeah, those look a little puny. Obviously designed for a different application. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to buy a $15 pair of end cutters and grind them down or just bite the bullet and order the stew mac pair when I purchase the fret cauls. (Also too expensive IMO)

[Inisheer]

Not sure if this harbor freight cheapie is any good....but it looks like the stewmac one. Maybe someone could try this.

[Myka Guitars]

I have used these cutters from LMI for years and they are still sharp. I only use them for cutting fret ends and they cut them flush with minimal filing. Price is similar to StewMac.

~David

[mattharris75]

You know, i'm sure that for a good quality tool $30 is a perfectly reasonable price. I've paid top dollar for tools that I'm going to use frequently. However, with my likely rate of production somewhere around 1.5 guitar per year I think the harbor freight cheapies will do the trick. Thanks Inisheer, I ran by HF at lunch and picked up a pair. I'll run them across the belt sander to get a good flat surface before I use them.

[jer7440]

Let us know how they work. I used side cutters to do the frets on the LP I'm working on. The didnt cut very close to flush and I had to file forever:(

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

you can get the same thing at home depot for <$15. thats what i did when i saw stew mac's price. same thing essentially too.

[Setch]

If you have a belt or disc sander, or grinder you can easily convert normal pincers or side cutters into flush cutting fret cutters. Mine are a cheap set of draper side cutters which I attacked with my belt sander and then some sandpaper and a fine diamond sharpener.

[mattharris75]

That's the plan Setch, bought the $5 deals at Harbor freight and will go to town with the belt sander before I use them.

[Jon]

I have used these cutters from LMI for years and they are still sharp. I only use them for cutting fret ends and they cut them flush with minimal filing. Price is similar to StewMac.

~David

I bought the diagonal cutters last year and they're no different from a set of dikes(sp?) from Home Depot. Not to mention they cost 3 times more than something you'd find at Home Depot.

[Woodenspoke]

That's the plan Setch, bought the $5 deals at Harbor freight and will go to town with the belt sander before I use them.

I just hope the steel in the HF is worth your time and investment. If the steel is soft you might as well have gone to HD and ground down a pair of channel locks.

Good luck

Woodenspoke

[mattharris75]

That's the plan Setch, bought the $5 deals at Harbor freight and will go to town with the belt sander before I use them.

I just hope the steel in the HF is worth your time and investment. If the steel is soft you might as well have gone to HD and ground down a pair of channel locks.

Good luck

Woodenspoke

For $5 the only way it's not worth my time/money is if it's a total failure. And regardless, I have more time than money, so I don't mind spending a little time working them over on a belt sander before I use them.

I just loaded up on birthday cash, so i'll be ordering the rest of my fretting tools within the next day or two, so I expect to know within the next month whether or not I made the right choice. If it's an utter failure i'll be sure to let you know.

[Woodenspoke]

That's the plan Setch, bought the $5 deals at Harbor freight and will go to town with the belt sander before I use them.

I just hope the steel in the HF is worth your time and investment. If the steel is soft you might as well have gone to HD and ground down a pair of channel locks.

Good luck

Woodenspoke

For $5 the only way it's not worth my time/money is if it's a total failure. And regardless, I have more time than money, so I don't mind spending a little time working them over on a belt sander before I use them.

I just loaded up on birthday cash, so i'll be ordering the rest of my fretting tools within the next day or two, so I expect to know within the next month whether or not I made the right choice. If it's an utter failure i'll be sure to let you know.

Honestly I can never figure out that logic that your time was less valuable than your money, ever hear the phrase"time is money". If the thing fails no I dont want to know; because I have a good pair of channel locks I know work and will last almost forever.

I own at least a dozen HF tools most of which work thats all I can say about them, when it comes to instrument tooling I usually bite the bullet and spend the bucks. We are talking a $15 difference here. If your experiment fails than expect the channel locks to cost an additional $5 plus shipping plus your time, Oh wait your time isn't valuable I forgot.

Sorry I'm busting your hump no offense personally I just want to point out that not every deal is a good deal.

My 2 1/2 cents worth.

Woodenspoke

[mattharris75]

Nobody said every deal is a good deal, but saving money where you can only makes sense. Simple economics. If I was doing a high volume of fretwork i'd spend the money in a heartbeat. But i'm not, so it doesn't justify a tool that last me for the next 20 years. This may be the first and last guitar I ever build. For all I know this Harbor Freight tool might last me until the day I die. I've had great luck with HF tools.

And all that 'time is money' baloney is just that, baloney. I'm not operating in an business capacity. I'm performing a leisure activity for my enjoyment. Modifying this tool is just an extension of that. I have zero intent to make money off of this, and if I wasn't spending my time on it I certainly wouldn't be spending that time at work. It's a simple choice. The logic of the decision is perfectly valid. I'm not a 'tool nazi', so this works for me.

[Xanthus]

I've got a pair of snippers that I can easily grind flush, but how will they work on SS wire? It's actually really small wire, so there wouldn't be a ton of cutting, and I'm only doing one neck, but what tools have others used that can handle SS frets? I'm thinking maybe a dremel and a cutting wheel and a pair of steady hands.

[pmarlin]

The problem with the cutting wheel is that it heats up the metal and discolors it. I tried it for cutting the tang back and then I went ahead and bought the fret tang nippers.

[Woodenspoke]

You could always use a good pair of cutters for other jobs around the house if you decide not to cut fret wire. Pulls out nails too.

Woodenspoke

[gibsonsg26]

you could end up being lucky anyway my experiences with harbor freight have been good and bad once in a while it does save you the money and get you a good product. Ive had a few hf tools break but thats a lot of the time just bad luck. Alot of my hf tools are still good and they have gone through me my grandfather and my dad using them. Hopefully youll end up lucky.

[cherokee6]

Got mine off ebay for $15. They're fine. By the way, Earlwine (no guarantee on the spelling!) in one of his books suggests getting a half-way decent set of nippers at the hardware store and grind 'em down, but, to be used as pullers, not necessarily nippers. And you guys are correct: $30 bucks for a good handtool that's properly machined, ground, etc. is not alot. Compare a Chinese set of channel locks or other pliers with the American ones; you'll see a vast difference.

[soapbarstrat]

I wouldn't buy stewmac's because they were too short to be comfortable on an acoustic or big body electrics. Now, finally StewMac has come out with a new version that's longer, and if they are as durable as the ones I ground myself, they're a good deal for the price they sell them, because I paid more than that for the unground nippers I converted ( really good brand, though).

[mattharris75]

For the record, my $5 harbor freight end nippers that I sanded down on the belt sander worked great for cutting the fret ends. That was 5 bucks well spent.

[Magnus]

For the record, my $5 harbor freight end nippers that I sanded down on the belt sander worked great for cutting the fret ends. That was 5 bucks well spent.

Good job, Matt. Sometimes making it yourself works just as well.

Case in point: Stew Mac sells their arbor press for $99.94. I went and bought a 1/2 ton arbor press from Harbor Freight for $15-20 (I don't remember the exact amount) and all I had to do to it was drill a hole in the end of the ram for the fretting caul to fit in. Wrap a little tape around the fretting caul, and push it in the hole.