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Private member Discussion3D Printing

More free prints

Few more prints up for grabs to anyone in the US who responds first. Fret sander and two screw holders with the gridfinity lobbed off so they are just free-standing.

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I am tempted by this offer, but I have already taken advantage of a free offer on here before. Need to give others their chance.
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Suggest an alternative to concave fret file

(for background context, I'm probably in the dozens of fret jobs so far, and no I don't let frets leave my house like this) When I got started getting interested in building guitars, I got the StewMac bundle of fret files/book, which comes with the concave toothed file. Over time, I ended up getting both the Narrow/Medium and Wide/Jumbo files. I don't do it often, but occasionally I do something like shown in the picture, where I'm clearl…

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What you're depicting in the picture above is what typically happens when a hollow (toothed or diamond grit) file that is too small for the size of fret us used to try and introduce a crown to fret th…
Private member Discussion3D Printing

Pickup routing template for les paul?

Does anyone have a STL for a routing template that will sit square on a les paul body? I need to cut a P90 hole into a middle position, and it would be nice to use the router, rather than chiseling the edges...

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Neat. Yes, that looks like exactly what I need.
Private member Discussion3D Printing

Free 3d printed stuff up for grabs

Santa heard I had a challenging year so he got me a 3d printer for Christmas. I’ve been printing like crazy, learning the machine. This has resulted in a bunch of tools that either don’t work for me, were attempts at mixing colors, or have very minor printing blemishes. Two lots up for grabs to anyone in the US who wants either. I’ll mail to you for free. First one to claim each gets it :) First lot has parametric nut and saddle sanders…

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Lot #1 still available. I'll likely be adding to the lot as I print and eff up but still make usable prints.
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Which Fret Saw?

Do you prefer the regular SM Fret Saw or the Japanese one they offer? Thx!

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Mainly refrets
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Pneumatic Fret Tang Nipper

Is there a Pneumatic Fret Tang Nipper out there or did anybody ever combined a Tang Nipper with a pneumatic Plier? Or maybe it is possible to take the Stewmac Tang Nipper (i like the new version) and modify it? I always make 20-40 Sets of frets ready so i can make a lot of fretboards ready in one day. But after a while my hand really hurts. Thank you

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It’s possible I saw warmoth may have one? I saw one in a video and forgot the manufacturer. It’s a terrifying idea for a tool but often wished I had one.
Private member DiscussionCNC

CNC errors

I'm fairly new to CNC and am attempting to set up for a fretboard carve. I'm using a one year old ShopBot Desktop Max. This is the first I've found a problem like this. I made some practice blanks and thought I had everything the way I wanted it until I measured me fret distances. Using calipers from the nut to the center for the first fret slot I get 1.399" and I'm expecting 1.4346. I brought up the file and used the measuring too…

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9 times out of ten these issues aren’t the software it’s the CNC itself or order of operations. Something might be binding on your machine causing one of the 3 axis to be out of whack. Im assuming you…
Private member DiscussionCAD/CAM

Laser cutting a fretboard and possibly a bolt on neck

I have access to a nova thunderlaser 5-something and I saw a video of somebody cutting out a fret board as well as the fret slots, as well as an entire neck out of a blank with a laser cutter, and I’m wondering if this is a reasonable thing to do and if anybody has experience with the kind of shrinkage that would probably happen with such a deep cut in the neck blank. Any insight at all is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Belated reply — I really struggled with maintaining verticality on my cuts when I did my first guitar with help from one. The fret slots were very V shaped you'd need to clean them up manually. Luckily…
Private member DiscussionCAD/CAM

Blender Plugin

About: I have created an Add-On for blender that at the moment generates fret positions and makes a fretboard according to several parameters. This makes it extremely easy to get started with modeling a Guitar in blender. If you are interested it please give it a whirl and let me know what you think about it and if you like it, what you don't, what you would like to see etc... If you do like it and would like aid its development please d…

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There are several free "add-ons" that allows cam functionality in blender. The one that immediately comes to mind is blender-cam. But for me personally since I use a laser getting it to an svg file is…
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Finish Damage from Proper's Workstation

Hey everyone, I just had a Tele clone built by a small builder in my Proper's Guitar Workstation for a new nut and a fret level. It was clamped down in the workstation for less than a day. I just noticed that the rear hold down clamp left its footprint in the finish. No, I don't know what type of finish the builder used, but I'm trying to find out. I'm thinking its not nitro or poly because I use my TVPGW everyday and this has never hap…

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Thanks Doug. I probably should have worded things differently. My goal wasn't to appear to throw shade unnecessarily at the workstation or question its efficacy. I was wondering if the urethane could…
Private member DiscussionCNC

Headfirst into the CNC deep end today

I'm the proud new owner of a "new to me" Fireball Meteor CNC machine. It feels really odd to have a computer in the shop but I guess I need to get used to that. Fortunately for me, I am well versed in CAD, unfortunately not so much on the CAM side of things. My 3 kids are all experts and are steepening the learning curve dramatically, this would be overwhelming if they weren't helping. So far I'm using the Fusion 360 personal use versio…

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Here's the video of how it's going so far, skip to 18:48 for the CNC part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyoosBNV6xQ Pretty good I think but I still have a long ways to go. My youngest son and I did g…
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

What happens to LMI tools?

Was using one of my favorite tools today and wondering what happens when LMI is gone? Is there a possibility someone takes over production of these great tools and jigs? When I heard about LMI closing, I immediately went and ordered a backup fret tang filer…a tool I use every week.

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It is my understanding that StewMac is slowly taking over and may reintroduce some tools.
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Dremel bit to clean up fret slot

I had to pull some frets on a neck I built to straighten it out 😣 given that the neck is bound, cleaning up the slots with the little StewMac fret saw with the red handle was a serious chore I’d like to avoid doing ever again. I’ve heard the little Japanese fret saw Stew Mac sells is nice to have but also I’ve always been shy about putting a Dremel on the board to get the job done and I think I’d like to try that out. Curious about othe…

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Man…
Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Birkonium Fret Press Cauls

Just got these and they are really neat. If you like to press frets and do compound or imperfect radius fretboards, these are the ticket.

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I designed that caul set and had Andy make a few sets for our shop and for students of our fretting classes. After being frustrated with the gaps between “standard spec” cauls vs real world variations…