Bending fretwire

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Morgan
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Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 10:42 pm

Bending fretwire

Post by Morgan »

I need to bend some fret wire, is there a pitfall to simply cutting an arc of MDF, routing a slot in the edge for the tang and bending around that?
tippie53
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Location: Hegins, Pa
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Re: Bending fretwire

Post by tippie53 »

I made my own with a hole saw made 3 rollers with the top one in the middle and a thin slot for the tang
I don't have a pic but it looks something like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV804LQDll0
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
ruby@magpage.com
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Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
Location: Chestertown Maryland

Re: Bending fretwire

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

I did what you are proposing to touch-up wire and increase the bend a little where needed. Mine is yellow pine with a saw kerf that followed a pencil line. I poked around and found a backsaw in the stash that was a slip-fit for the wire. Works fine for my purposes, but all the wire I have bought came pre-bent so i have never had to do the whole job with it

Ed
Ed M
phavriluk
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Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:49 pm

Re: Bending fretwire

Post by phavriluk »

I made a fret bending jig from a drawing I fished from somewhere online. Had a parts list of all the bearings and rollers and handles and fasteners, and every bit came from my local True Value guitar tool store. Except for the UHMW cutting board I used for the body, that came from Target. Works just fine and didn't take but a couple of hours to build.
peter havriluk
MaineGeezer
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Re: Bending fretwire

Post by MaineGeezer »

You may want something harder than MDF so the tang is a good stable non-wiggle fit in the groove, but I think it ought to work.
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