fret slotting circular saw blade ?

[Stu]

I'm using the stew-mac fretslot mitre-box at present with good results.
Having said that, I'm always on the search for an easier way .

Has anyone delved into the world of using a circular fret saw blade
on a homemade sled setup?
Got the saw blade on order and wondering if anyone's had dramas in set up . e.g. what to look out for.


cheers, Stu

[Kim]

Stu,

My tip, if it takes you a whole day just to build a sled that cuts true 90 degree and will do so with repeated accuracy, let it take you a whole day. I used steel runners on my sled fit with little tolerance, this was to address any wear issues, however I would recommend using phenolic resin board instead as it would not be as affected by expansion and contraction changes caused by swings in temperature.

Also, I recommend the steel stewmac indexing guide over the perspex LMI unit, sure you can't see through steel but if your jig is right you don't need to. The biggest tip however is to push the board through the blade to make the cut, then lift the board back over the blade, index and cut again. Do not pull the board back through the saw or it WILL widen the slot more than the original kerf no matter how well you set up.

Cheers

Kim

[Stu]

Thanks for the prompt advice, Kim.
I'd thought about the one way cut and the drawbacks of pulling back through the initial fret slot cut, making it bigger. It's a valid point .

I was initially planning on using bearing encased drawer runners for the sled. I reckon they'll be extremely stable with virtually no slop or sideways movement, although likely to be prone to clogging up through use and dust etc......

Where can phenolic resin boards for the sled be bought from ?

I'll start on the sled this week and report back , if no-one minds.

BTW. Great forum here guys, and it's good to see regular faces here
as well.



cheers, Stu

[Kim]

No worries Stu,

You can get phenolic sheet from most electrical wholesalers like Lawrence and Hanson. It is often used for household and industry circuit boards because it is heat stable, fire resistant and strong. Not cheap though, from memory around $35 for a 400mm x 400mm sheet, but very useful for all kinds of jigs which require a flat stable low friction surface eg; when constructing a router base it is perfect and when building a Williams/Fleishman binding jig, http://www.dewguitars.com/BindingJig/Binding%20Jig.htm phenolic sheet is the ideal material for the side plates of the parallelogram.

The only down side apart from the cost, the dust will kill ya, and if you cut it with a tablesaw, it is so freak'in hard that it will quit literally take the brazing right off the tungsten teeth of your blade. So make sure you use an old cheap blade to cut it and only wind the blade height up just enough to make the cut so the teeth can mill their way through. Get too greedy by setting the blade so the teeth smash their way through, and you will have trouble.

Also, eye protection is a must, so phenolic is NOT nice stuff to work with really, but once you have the job done, you probably won't be needing to do it again in your life time.

Cheers

Kim

[graham mcdonald]

I have a very simple sled made up of rock maple on a little table saw using one of the thin blades from either StewMac or LMI. The runners sit in the slots in the saw table with a big lump of maple as the piece that guides the fretboard with a cut off 1/8 drill bit that indexes the slots in the templates. The most fiddly bit was adjusting the arbor that the saw blade itself is mounted into to get that exactly square to the sled. How ever it gets set up it will always cut the slots parallel, it is just easier if in the long run if they are at 90 degrees to one edge of the fretboard

cheers

graham

[Bob Connor]

Welcome to the forum Stu.

I can't help you as I use the Stewmac hand jig as well but I'll be watching with interest to see what you come up with.

Bob

[Arnt]

I have the Stewmac blade and ss fretboard template and I use a plywood/melamine sled with wooden runners. My table saw has a 20 mm arbor, so I had a local machine shop ream out the hole on the saw blade, but that was no biggie at all. Everything works very well for me

One warning: These blades have no set, so DON'T cut anything deeper than fret slots on it, or you will over heat and ruin it...

[Stu]

Thanks for your tips and replies fellas.
Having other people's experiences in their methods helps a great deal.

The Saw blade arrived from Stew-Mac today, along with a generous assortment of other hardware and the like.

I guess that's my cue to get cracking.

[Dominic]

Hey Oz tradie,

where were you going to get your drawer runners? I've been on the lookout for good quality ones, hopefully within Aust.
Dom

[SteveF]

Hi Dominic
Is this what you're lookin for http://tiny.cc/EkxZF there are others as well.Have seen a lot on Ebay lately....hope that helps.....steve