Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

You are viewing a re-constructed thread by the ANZLF recovery team. For more information click here.

"Originally Posted on:Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:58 pm

As I read the post by Dazz, “fret saw alternatives” regarding fretting saws last night, I was part of the way through the building of the dedicated fret slotting saw shown here, its now finished.

I had been using my tablesaw to do this task since 2002 and just changed the blade as required and used the jig shown in the photo. However I sold that saw [with a 5/8” arbor] and I replaced it with a new saw but, the new saw has a 30mm arbor. There was talk at that time on the forum about machining larger holes in the saws or changing the arbor from 30mm to 5/8”, both a costly option with this new machine.

So what I did was to build the saw you see here.

I bought a new cut off saw with a 5/8” or 16mm arbor, dismantled it and reassembled it into the cabinet shown.
It’s made out of pine [from shelving I had laying around] and the table top is as you can see from an old Triton jigsaw/router stand.

I had to cut the steel top to allow for the saw blade, but that was all. I bolted the saw assembly to the back of the cabinet upside down, [actually it’s the front of the cabinet due to saw rotation direction] and made and fitted a height adjusting fixture.

The whole thing was then set up, wired to a switch on the front and tested for accuracy.

I then modified the jig that I had been using all those years to have rails that follow the edges of the table, instead of the miter slots of the old table saw. These rails are adjustable so that any movement can be taken out if need be. It works well and cuts perfectly square slots.

It will also be used for cutting the slots in my linings. Cost all up about $85.00.






_________________
Taff

Very clever Taffy! Good job. Now you don't have to fiddle when it's time to slot a board.
_________________
Waddy

Build Albums 1 - 4 Done, 5 in process

Clip for #1 Barrios' "Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios" - Not me playing

Taffy - thanks for showing that. I use a Triton bench saw, swap the blade as you used to, and made up a similar jig to use the LMI fret template. The first time I cut the slots, I did it in the normal ripping position, using the square in its single slot. However one of the things I really dislike about the Triton saw bench is the slop/movement in the square, and as a result some of the slots were not square. It is accentuated by the weight of the jig on the square as you push it as well. So since then, I flip the table into the cross cut position to get around that problem, where the jig is fixed in position i.e. doesn't move. But I see your solution to that is rails either side of the bench top - so simple. I'll give that a go.
Frank

I made something similar from scratch as well.
I had a Stew-mac fret blade with a 5/8" bore and went down to Bunnings and picked up an ozito table saw for $112 . Chucked everything but the actual motor assy. and built a box around it with ball-bearing hinges.

img~
_________________
Cheers,Stu

Yes Stu, I was looking for one of those at the time but they were not in stock, would have been a better move I'm thinking.
_________________
Taff

There's generally a bit of end play in the shaft of cheaper saws. I suppose it isn't enough to be a problem. Bloody good idea!


This is the final re-constructed message of this topic posted by the ANZLF help team.

Hi, since this post was done I have a couple of updates re this machine. I may have posted one regarding the one above but it may have got lost in the hacking.

The idea above worked well as far as function went but this motor was not designed for continuous running, the smell of motor windings getting hot and the noise caused me to shelve this idea.
Stu: Using the same box I got one of the Bunnings table saws you spoke of. However the biggest problem was getting the motor shaft and flanges to run true [the saw had a slight wobble that made the slot too wide] even got new flanges made up. Still no good the problem must be in the motor shaft. So this one was sent into storage too.

The Mark 3 fretting saw is as shown below.

It uses the same box, with a couple of mods, the table from the Bunnings saw is used and the blade is driven by a small Makita good quality bench grinder. I had had the grinder since 1979. Its attraction to the job was 1- it did not get used often. 2- no noise at all 3- correct size shaft and flanges that ran true and 4- most importantly the body of the machine was of a smaller diameter than the saw-blade.

It was a simple set up and works perfectly.

Nicely done Taffy.

Um, were you ever on the show Junk Yard Wars? I forget the British version of it.

Lillian wrote:Nicely done Taffy.

Um, were you ever on the show Junk Yard Wars? I forget the British version of it.

Scrapheap Challenge Lillian & I think Taffy would have been considered too well equiped to be considered "fair" on the other competitors
Here's just one corner of his yard (the metals & rubber corner) as he searches for parts for his next 'invention'




Nice saw Taffy by the way, it would be nice to have a dedicated saw, just have to drop the appropriate scale template in & away you go.