Simple Fret Press Caul For New Boards Unattached

[chris paulick]

youtu.be/
There I go again thinking outside the box again. And this time it seems to have worked.
And it has the best soundtrack ever!

[Ormsby Guitars]

Im not sure I understand. The idea of doing things in new formats or techniques, is to improve accuracy, quality, and speed. What you're doing here has the potential for problems (deforming fret wire, pop up from not holding down one end whilst pressing the other, etc), and is considerably slower than any pressing method Ive seen before. I'd go as far to say it's a lot slower than the 'old' hammer fit way of doing things.

[chris paulick]

Also cost and I'd argue that it is a better and more accurate way over hammering for sure. I believe it eases the fret in and conforms to the fretboard radius far better then hammering which will deform the fret more then this method due to the sharp blows and recoil from the hammer. Think about it, when you hammer you tap the one end in then use sharp quick hammering across the fret causing quick little bends which can cause dings or little flats. This way it's rolled smoothly eased into the slot I believe. It might take a little longer up front but it will be made up for by little on no leveling required if done properly. Then again if the fretboard radius is off from your caul it isn't going to seat perfect when press too. With this it's perfect match to the board.
No noise as with hammering also.
I'd use it with a drill press even without a cross vise over hammering just for the noise factor by pecking it across the fret. But that's just me, I'm a pretty mellow type of guy who has no need for drama.
The reason I did this was because I needed to fret that compound radius board and don't have the time to make or the money buy a set of cauls and thought this might help others out in the same situation. I thought about putting a bearing on the end of a shaft and rolling it across the fret while it was being pressed but what the hell, it took me 5 minutes and a cost of $0.50 to make the bolt polycarb caul and seems to have worked out just fine. Thanks for watching the video and for your question.

[Ormsby Guitars]

But thats the thing. At 1:10 you HAVE bent the fret, right in the middle. By the time its reached the bass side of the fretboard, the treble side has lifted up.

At 1:46, the bass side is down hard. By 2:00, as you work towards the treble side, it has popped up. Thats torn all the fibres, and the barbs are no longer doing their thing.

The cost of cauls, is insignificant, compared to the labour rate over just a couple guitars. I dont think it would take more than 90 seconds to fret a neck with a press and cauls. Even a compound radius is easy enough with a quick change of caul shapes a few times. Buy two sets, and use copper shielding tape to 'adjust' the radius at the ends.

If you look at the previous fret, it looks really clear to me, that it is less seated more on the fretboard edge, than it is further in.

If you tap the ends in first, seat them right on the edge, then "flatten them' by use of a caul, the over radiused fretwire will conform to the fretboard radius, and in doing so, 'lengthen'. This pushes the end barbs towards the edge of the fretboard, locking them into fresh timber. No glue required, if you like.

[chris paulick]

Well the ends are seated and what you see is shadow . this is basically the same as hammering just with the advantages of pressing . Everything that happens here happens when hammering frets .If you press it in another order . End point is it is fretted and looks great. Works for me.

[simso]

Ive got to admit, I dont like it.

I see the fret ends riding out of the fretslots, whilst your pressing it across, to me this indicates the tangs are tearing through the wood, if there tearing through the wood then the tangs are pointless,

The drill press is a good idea, simple, but why not use proper shaped cauls to press the frets in. There pretty cheap these days, go back 20 years and I would say, yeh getting shaped cauls is costly but these days I think there like a few bucks each if you buy commercially available ones, or for those with cnc they can be made up on the spot in seconds.

Steve