Fret slotting sled and blade

[Stray Feathers]

For my first twenty or so instruments, I worked on improving my system of cutting fret slots, making a dedicated mitre box, and trying different saws, including Stew Mac's Japanese saw. I was still fighting with saws binding, especially with ebony, so I decided to look at other options. I was aware of SM's table saw blade, and investigated others too. In the end two friends and I ordered blades from Rall Guitars in Germany:

https://shop.rall-online.net/epages/615 ... 60/176/192

They look the same as the SM blades, and in fact have several fret slot options available. We bought the .6 mm blades (.0237") and the finished slots are .024, which I am happy with for ebony. The price including shipping and taxes was $142 each Canadian - about half what I would pay from Stew Mac, even if I had the free shipping plan.

I looked at lots of videos about fret slotting sleds and in the end cobbled together one on my own, which I used today for the first time. It seemed to go okay. I had two minor issues; The first was that the fence rails on my old Delta contractor saw are higher than the bottom of the table slots, so I had to thin the sled "runners" so they would not lift up when going over the rails. Seems like a design flaw, but who would you complain to after 35 years? The other concern is that it looks like there are a couple of scorch marks on the blade from when I was running a slot in the 6mm birch plywood sled, even though I took it in several passes. It seemed to cut the ebony fretboard without complaint so I will see how it stands up. Bruce W.

[Marty C]

Thank you for sharing this. Do you think this 6" diameter will work if in a 10" standard contractor's saw?

I like the concept of the sled. I want to try this as well.

[jread]

Nice. I'd like to upgrade to this kind of setup. I use the stewmac miter saw gives great results but it wears me out cutting 20 frets by hand as the saw seems to bind in the rollers no matter how much I adjust them.

[Stray Feathers]

Yes, I am using this on a 10" table saw with standard 5/8" arbour. I was a bit careful in using 6 mm birch plywood as the bottom of the sled but there was more than enough depth for the 6" blade to cut the slots. My friend (also a KGF member) also uses a 10" saw. He has gone one step further than I and tried different frets for the slot width this blade cuts, especially in ebony. He may chime in here. And yes, it sure saves a lot of wear and tear on aging forearms and shoulders. In my case I was also having problems because in an attempt to reduce binding, I was using a lot of clamps to hold my homemade mitre box securely. But I found I was deforming the mitre box in the centre so the blade was binding in the kerfs even more! We were also worried about sloppiness in the bearings of our old table saws, but they seem to be cutting consistently. Bruce W.