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Fretting Saw


hittitewarrior

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21 hours ago, hittitewarrior said:

Has anybody used the Stew Mac fretting saw blade for the table saw?

It gets mostly good reviews on the website but there are some saying the tolerance on the saw is not so great?? Thoughts?

used one a long time ago. What I found was to use some blade stiffeners with it. otherwise if it gets hot in something like ebony it will warp. Don't ask me how I know that :LOL!!

MK

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On 1/23/2017 at 8:17 PM, hittitewarrior said:

Has anybody used the Stew Mac fretting saw blade for the table saw?

It gets mostly good reviews on the website but there are some saying the tolerance on the saw is not so great?? Thoughts?

Knightro is correct. I use it and get great results. I'm not sure what "tolerance" means in the context of the saw blade, but I can say with certainty that I get solid, consistent results. Its not cheap, but the time it saves me by not having to slot fretboards manually is worth more to me than the money I spent on it. :)

 

@MiKroIve slotted a half-dozen ebony boards as well. No warping. Its not in the wood for long enough to get hot.

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1 hour ago, Skyjerk said:

Knightro is correct. I use it and get great results. I'm not sure what "tolerance" means in the context of the saw blade, but I can say with certainty that I get solid, consistent results. Its not cheap, but the time it saves me by not having to slot fretboards manually is worth more to me than the money I spent on it. :)

 

@MiKroIve slotted a half-dozen ebony boards as well. No warping. Its not in the wood for long enough to get hot.

Yep, I was using a small 8 " saw at the time with less power. So my results were most likely caused by that. If I were to run it on my Large table saw it most likely would have been better. It is still a principle of feed and speed. :)

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I tried to make a miter box and use a hand saw, but I wasn't comfortable with the accuracy of my measurements (I might have been being overly picky, but at the rate I get to work on this hobby... I didn't want to get it wrong and find out much later).... so between buying the stew mac miter box and 25.5" template, or the fretting saw blade and template.... I'm thinking the 5 minutes per fret board thing might be realllly nice, let alone cheaper than the miter box.

Is anyone using a router approach to fret slots, or does most everyone else use a manual fret saw?

 

@Skyjerk I see you are a fellow Chester County Pennsylvanian!  

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I had my own blade made up to fit my radial arm saw.

I went to my tool sharpeners who took a thin blade they had lying around about to be thrown out and ground it to the kerf width of the stewmac blade.

It cost me about $10! It helps having a long standing relationship with them I suppose (and my father before me).

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