Working on a mini electric Fret Saw.

[woodfab]

I've been designing an electric Fret Saw.

I'm pretty close to start machining the parts.

It should be a Fun project.

One benefit to the project is that I'm finally learning to use CAD .

[Bizman62]

Wow! Yet another example of how many other skills the members have!

[woodfab]

Boy if I was charging $50 an hour, this thing would cost $1,000 

It's getting close to trying it.

[woodfab]

Here's where it's at.

I'll post drawings for those who are interested.

[woodfab]

First test cuts on pine.

Seems pretty good but I don't like the marks left by the aluminum foot.

I haven't tried cutting rosewood yet. I might have to increase the voltage higher on the motor.

[henrim]

Looking good. Aluminium can a bitch with it's tendency to stain. Polishing it to high degree may help. Or maybe attach a strip of nylon to the bottom of the foot. Or just tape. I have done a presser foot for a sewing machine out of aluminium. For no other reason that a suitable piece of aluminium was the first piece I found. The foot worked fine even with light coloured fabrics.

[woodfab]

First  neck, seems to work well.

 

[Bizman62]

That's an intersting concept and having templates on both sides allows for all imaginable fan fretting options as well. But doesn't it take forever to unscrew the saw and move it to the next position? Rock solid indeed with the threaded locating holes but having to screw and unscrew 44 times or more is something I've become allergic to after having opened and closed hundreds of laptops.

Also careful with those threads, the steel bolts can easily cut new threads and ruin the hole in the soft aluminium bar! For those who don't already know, when screwing a bolt into a threaded hole it's highly recommendable to turn the bolt counterclockwise until it clicks as it falls into the thread.

 

 

[henrim]

29 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

But doesn't it take forever to unscrew the saw and move it to the next position?

I hadn’t noticed the threads. Wouldn’t pins be enough? 

I have had a Proxxon FET mini table saw for many years but haven’t ever made a sled for fret slot cutting. My latest fretboard was Blackwood TEK which is about as awkward to saw as ebony. While cutting that board by hand I made myself a promise to make the sled. Now it would be time to deliver.

[woodfab]

To mount the guitar and cut 24 frets took close to 25 min. not fast enough for production I guess.

I thought about pins instead of screws with some type of quick clamp but didn't want to spend another 10 hours building it.

It's kind of crazy, I could have hand cut about 50 guitars in the amount of time it took to make this saw. 

Also the 1st push button I used failed after about 10 cuts on a test piece.

[henrim]

2 hours ago, woodfab said:

To mount the guitar and cut 24 frets took close to 25 min

Sounds pretty reasonable.

[woodfab]

OK, well I only cut slots for three guitars.

1st. one I tried Clime-cutting and Under-cutting.

The thing with Clime-cutting is that the saw would jump forward and jam occasionally.

Undercutting seem to illuminate the Jamming but sometimes the start of the slot ended up .005" wider.

On the 3rd. guitar I did a clime cut with a fast return cut to make sure the cut was at full depth.

Out of 25 cuts two had a .005" wider at the far side of the cut, not to bad, filler!