Don't laugh. I've been trying to refret my guitar for like a year now (took long for the tools to arrive). I only bought the tools I though were compulsory... files and stuff. But I didn't buy a fret bevelling file 'cos it was too expensive (hell I would have probably failed with that too). Buying a fret press was out of the question.
I used this:
I didn't even have a tool to cut a correct size slot... so I used a file which was slightly bigger. The radiused brass thing only felt firm till it actually was in use; it pressed all the frets in bent.
And here's the worst part... no matter what I did, every time I filed the angle in the frets and tried to make them smooth the the FB, the file would rip through any tape I used and dig into the fretboard. I only noticed how bad this was after taking all the masking tape off. How people do this I have no clue. Maybe the reason my frets were never smooth was because they weren't pushed in correctly. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't use a bevelling file and went with downward motions with a normal dressing file. Or maybe I'm just crap at this, either way, behold, the worst fret job you've seen:
So as you can tell I'm in urgent need of help. I completely messed up by frets and fretboard on this guitar = really angry and sad. Have no idea where to go from here. I wish there was an easy way to do this, I love the idea of refurbishing old guitar and building my own but that will probably never happen.