Post #32 - Clamping the fingerboard.

After a short hiatus (busy end of school year for my kids and my students), I am finally back to this build. I've actually been working incrementally on the frets over the past weeks, but the progress was slow and not really worth noting. Since the fingerboard is bound, I had to dress the fret ends before installation.

Below you see the fingerboard after being fully fretted. I've also glued in the truss rod into the channel of the neck with white glue. Since the truss rod angles down toward the soundhole, I used various sheets to shim any cavities above the truss rod so that the neck will have a flat surface to attached to.

White glue is used to glue the fingerboard to the neck. Here is where I use a lot of clamps to make sure I have good contact and adhesion. Next, a little bit of glue clean up and waiting for dry time. The (scary) step of fitting the dovetail neck is up next.

Post #31 - Fingerboard cont. and fretting

Below is a shot of the fingerboard after being routed out with the dremel.  

For adhesive, I'm using the slow set epoxy dyed with black and brown to match the fingerboard.  I then used the powerd palm sander to sand down the inlays until close to flush and finished off with a block sander. Here are the pieces after sanding.  I finished off with 320 grit and then 1200 to polish off the inlays.  In preparation for fretting, I also cleaned up the bindings with a scraper.

Here are the tools for the fretwork.  I attached the fret press attachment on the drill press.

The other tools include a fret cutter.  A fret tang nipper.  A fret hammer.  A fret file. White glue.  I dress the fret before installation because of the bound fingerboard.  I used white glue to help keep the fret installed after installation.  The fret press does a good job, but it can only apply so much pressure,  I often hammer to make sure the fret is fully seated in the slot.

Here is fret #2 installed.

Misc. Post

I came across this interesting post on making a multiple bound fingerboard.