Fret Bender

[Ken Hundley]

There was a great post awhile back about a home made fret bender, and I can't find it in either forum for the life of me. Anyone remember it? It was about a small hand-cranked bender made from UHMW, and a window crank, and some bearings? There was a pattern for the jig base I was looking for, getting ready to radius and fret the fingerboard for my curly mango, and wanted to do it right. A couple of the frets lifted on black beauty, so I want to make sure this doesn't happen from now on.

[tippie53]

check you tube , you will find many examples of them out there .

[kencierp]

I found that device to be way to finicky for me --- I simply cut a circle of Masonite 16" or what ever radius you want --- cut that in half, match the halves up, put a piece of venner the thickness of the fret wire tang between the two pieces and glue it together. Just put the tang of the wire in the slot formed by the veneer and bend the wire around the half circle. You can make the circle a little undersize to compensate for spring back. $.02

[tippie53]

I will say that when I was a newbie I made and used a fret bender . I soon found that it was overkill. I use my thigh if I have straight frets or bend by hand . Over bent frets can cause trouble as unbent ones can . The more you fret the more you can see what you need to do .
Fret wire alloys may need different amounts of bending as others .

[Ben-Had]

Here tis. Enjoy

Tim B

[Ken Hundley]

Thanks, Everyone!