I made a Fret Wire Bender

[Kevin Sjostrand]

So after I ran out of LMI prebent Fretwire, I started using straight wire and have been able to install it but it is a pain, especially the ends not fully seating and having to clamp them down a wick in a bit of CA to get them to stay down.

So instead of purchasing fret bender I made one.
Very easy to do.
I had the wood, all the needed bolts, washers and nuts.
I had to purchase 2 fender washers of the needed size and bearings. On Ebay I got 8 for $6 shipped.
I only used 4 for this.
Lots of versions shown on the Net to do this. I mimicked one I like the best.
It works. I had precut the frets fir my ongoing build and they needed to be bent. They bent okay, other than the ends not quite as much radius as the rest of the fret.
Bending a length of wire it does a great job but still the very ends are a touch under bent for the radius.
It is adjustable and could probably bend a 3 ft radius.

The only issue is I didva very sloppy slot for the drive wheel so adjustment can be made. Once a fret in the the fixture it doesn't matter much. I cut the slot by hand......I may make another wood piece and cut the slot on the router table for a better fit.

So if any of you want to bend your frets and you have most if not all the supplies....I used 5/16 bolts, give it a try.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

one more pic

[MaineGeezer]

Excellent! I got bogged down trying to make one, trying to put gearing between the two bottom rollers so both would be driven, and other stuff, to the point that I never actually did anything. You've got a reasonable design that works; what more do you need?

[TEETERFAN]

Looks good,Kevin. Nothing better than fabricating a tool or device to make things easier. Those eyeballs seem to be working fine!

[phavriluk]

I made something a great deal like this one from a drawing (origin lost in the mists of time) and a bill of materials. Does the job I want. And I found the same characteristic of the starting/ending ends not geting fully bent. I wind up sacrificing a couple inches of fret wire on each end of the piece I'm bending. The fret wire's got to be present on all three rollers for a bend to work, and that's not the result of the making, it's inherent to the design of any that work like this one.

Instead of a piece of wood I used a small cutting board (uhmw) from the luthier supply department at Target.