2 new bar fret guits, sound file added

Guitars by Grant Goltz of Hackensack, MN
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Eben
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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by Eben » Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:55 am

Oh my, them's gonna be stunners, indeed!

E
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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by whitespruce » Fri Mar 21, 2014 1:57 pm

Today's installment, as promised.

Fret Slots
Obviously, these are way different than the slots needed for regular fretwire. First, they need to be wider to accommodate the thickness of the bar stock. They also need to be flat bottomed since the bar frets seat directly on the bottom of the slot rather than following the profile of the fingerboard surface as in modern fretwire. So, I cut the slots on a table saw with a sled and a home made template. But first I need a blade that will cut the proper slot width. I want a snug, but not a forced fit, and I like the slot to start a bit tighter to allow me to hone a few thousands off the faces of the frets to get just the right fit.

I had honed down the sides of the teeth on a 7 1/2 Diablo thin kerf blade (which off the shelf cuts a sloppy 1/16" slot) to get a good fit for the LMI bar fret stock, which is .056" thick. These frets are a bit thicker, so I need to prepare another blade.

So, I start with a slightly used blade and rub both sides on a flat silicon carbide grinding wheel
Image
This polishes the sides of the carbide tips and also trues up the irregularities in this (cheap) blade. I do both sides until I am satisfied with the thickness of the teeth. In this case, I aimed for about .o58"

Then I mount the blade with 5" diameter blade stabilizers
Image
And make a test cut to check the fret fit.

I do test cuts using my sled to get the slot depth set. Then I attach my slotted template (shop made) to the blank with double faced tape. The slots in the template register with a metal fin in my sled (red arrow) and I cut the slots
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another view
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And here is the result
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And here is a shot of the neck blanks and blocks
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One about ready to go and the other needing peghead ears and the mortise and tenon cut.

Thanks for looking, comments and questions appreciated.

G

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Eben
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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by Eben » Fri Mar 21, 2014 3:22 pm

How deep are ya cutting those, G? Hard for my old orbs to discern!

E
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whitespruce
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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by whitespruce » Fri Mar 21, 2014 4:07 pm

Eben wrote:How deep are ya cutting those, G? Hard for my old orbs to discern!

E
about .11" or so

G

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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by whitespruce » Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:08 pm

Well, I have been trying to do a bit on these every day or so. Yesterday I joined the tops...nothing really to show, just blue tape.

So today I started the rosettes. First, I routed the channels
Image

I am doing the bark thing again, so this time I ran a big strip of birch bark through the thickness sander. Got it cleaned of and down to a tad under 1/16" thick. then I gave it a coat of shellac on both sides
Image

Next step was to cut a couple of bark rings with the small router
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After getting a good dry fit....
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....I glued them in and put a flat caul and a heavy weight on top

Tomorrow I will route a narrow channel inside and out and install b/w/b purflings. Then I can final sand the tops, cut the outline, and they will be ready to brace.

Thanks for looking,

G

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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by timo » Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:26 pm

Looking great Grant. Glad you're in the shop and posting. Nice top too. T

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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by whitespruce » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:23 pm

Thanks for the comments, Tim. These are a couple of the last of my close grain white spruce tops from a log I processed about 12 years ago. Sure wish I had a bunch more of that, but I sold off a bunch of it waaay too cheap :(

So, finished the rosettes today, first routed 1/16" channels inside and out and cut some black and white veneer strips. gave everything a light coat of shellac to seal the grain
Image

Then I laid in the veneer lines dry. Had to hand sand them a tad to get 3 layers to fit in the channels
Image

Then I flooded them with CA
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After some hand sanding to roughly level things (can't scrape or plane the bark) I ran the tops through the thickness sander
All done
Image

I did have one small problem...about an inch of one of the b/w/b lines did not get seated deep enough and it sanded through :twisted: So will have to reroute a short section and splice in some more veneer strips :(

Guess I had better show that process.

G

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Re: 2 new bar fret guits

Post by Dennis Leahy » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:41 pm

I love those bark rosettes!

Dennis
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