westhemann Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 i have heard you guys talking about other methods for radiusing your fretboards and i am wondering...is there a better way than that stewmac radius block? i am having a really hard time getting an accurate radius from that thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 I know what you mean Wes. You could try my GuitarMaestro special method. I had the idea for it already some time ago, but so far I only used it for shaping the wings of RC-Planes and not for fingerboards. It is even usable to make high precision compound radius fingerboards. It works this way: 1. Cut a template for the desired radius out of 1-3 mm metal. The template has to look like this(the radius is way exaggerated here): - - - - ------------ 2. Cut another one with the same radius or another radius if you want to do a compound radius. 3. Glue one template on each end of the fingerboard 4. Take a long and very plane sanding stick. I recommend StewMacs aluminium fret leveling bar. The bar has to be longer than the fingerboard 5. Sand the fingerboard down along the whole length moving the bar along the run of the strings guiding the bar over the templates. If you have sanded down, so that your bar meets the templates at both ends you end up with a 100% accurately radiused fingerboard, as long as your templates were accurate and the bar was really flat. You have to guide the bar as parallel to the fingerboard as possible in order to get the best results for a cylindrical fingerboard and along the run of the strings for a conical one. This method is widely used for shaping the profile of wings for RC planes, and it worked great for me there. I am going to use it for my next fingerboard and I suppose it will work great there as well. In order to reduce the sanding work I usually use a electric plane or a usual plane to roughly shape the fingerboard first. HTH, Marcel Knapp! Edit: I edited the post to make it easier to understand, as I think it was not that clear before.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 @maestro: neat, i had to read that a couple of times before i really understood it, so it all comes down to how well you can make that radius template (convex right?) and how evenly you position them, i think i'll stick to my stew mac blocks and some 24 grit @wes: what problems exactly where you having? like are you getting a flat section in the middle of the board? high and low spots? are you using the 4" or 8" blocks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 @Derek: I edited my original post for better clarity, as I am not sure if you did understand my method correctly....Please tell me if it is clearer now.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_urr_A Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 One thing to keep in mind if you decide to use guitarmaestro's method is that the sanding stick or whatever you use must be kept parallel to the neck at all times, or you can end up with really not-nicely shaped fingerboards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 One thing to keep in mind if you decide to use guitarmaestro's method is that the sanding stick or whatever you use must be kept parallel to the neck at all times, or you can end up with really not-nicely shaped fingerboards. This is only correct if you want to make a cylindrical board. As I wrote in my post: You have to guide the bar as parallel to the fingerboard as possible in order to get the best results for a cylindrical fingerboard and along the run of the strings for a conical one. But you are still correct that it is REALLY important to guide the bar correctly. However in the beginning it is not that important. If you come close to the templates then it's time to really guide the bar precisely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Luthier Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 I made my own radiusing blocks back in highschool and they did a bad job, it wasn't even. Now I use my edge sander and radii gauges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 I made my own radiusing blocks back in highschool and they did a bad job Because the radius blocks were bad or because you think radius blocks give bad results in general? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gw_guitars Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 Maestro: I think you're idea is great. It took a little time reading before I could understand it but the idea is fine. Unfortunally it won't work for me cause I wanna build a one piece neck thru. So there's no fingerboard, just like a stratocaster with a maple neck. Any idea's on this one?? Gerard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 Thank you very much gw_guitars!!!! I wanna build a one piece neck thru. So there's no fingerboard, just like a stratocaster with a maple neck. Any idea's on this one?? Yes. You could temporarily insert the metal template in the nut slot and on the other end there should not be a problem at all. DISCLAIMER: As I said before, I used the whole technique only for RC plane wings so far, but I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work for fingerboards with the great results it gives for plane wings. In the end it is nearly the same thing, only that the plane wing is not symmetrical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Luthier Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 I made my own radiusing blocks back in highschool and they did a bad job Because the radius blocks were bad or because you think radius blocks give bad results in general? Not sure. It just gave an uneven radius. Maybe my technique was off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krizalid Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 can a rasp or a file be used for radiusing the fretboard? anyhow, i've got a 10mm, should i keep this thickness or cut it into two? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 can a rasp or a file be used for radiusing the fretboard? anyhow, i've got a 10mm, should i keep this thickness or cut it into two? I don't think so.... But there always were people coming up with uncommon ways of doing the job who succeed anyway....So far I have not heard of anyone trying to radius a fingerboard that way and I cannot imagine it will work very well though....So unless you are already expirienced in shaping fretboards the usual way I would recommend to do it the normal way with radius blocks or a bandsander. Or my method.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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