Leveling frets questions!

[scorpionscar]

When Leveling frets, starting from a perfect radiused and uniform fingerboard, and the fretwire is uniform, I notice that sometimes is needed to remove too much material. In my last leveling, the process was too quick, only some passes with 400 grit leveling bar. I know that the first step is to put the neck as stright as possible, however I notice when I use the notched ruler that there is a slight concave gap in the center of the neck, this relieve is difficult for me to straighten, sometimes I have to appeal to visual inspection (as If I were to shoot a gun like in the second pic).

I use an arbor press and the frets enter perfect, there is not much choice that some of them sit lower becouse the ebony is too hard....

The ideal thing would be that the leveling process were fast and easy, however most times is tedious. What are your thoughts about this?

Scorpionscar

 

[mistermikev]

I would bet you are using taller frets on this one.  the taller the fret - the more it is going to take you away from the original radius since the edge of the fret now sits on a 9.06" radius instead of a 9" (for instance).  

Just a guess.

Kind of gave up on radius blocks for this reason... straight edge does a better job in the sense that you should be taking less off for the reasons above.  

[Bizman62]

I find it odd to have relief on the neck after pushing the frets in. Logically thinking it should be the other way around: As the frets should sit tight in the slots there's a tiny bit more material in the slots than there originally was which should make the fretboard bend backwards. A stiff enough neck should be able to withstand the bow and tighten the frets into the slots instead of giving in. The harder the fretboard material is the more backbow there theoretically will be.

Anyhow, a relief can easily be fixed by tightening the truss rod, both dual action and single action rods are built to straighten the relief. Sometimes the neck doesn't seem to straighten no matter which way you turn the truss rod nut. If there's glue in the truss rod channel or something else hindering it to work properly, tapping (rather banging with your palm) the neck can help releasing any snags.