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Homemade tool for bumping fret tops when recrowning


webwarmiller

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I like to use the technique of 'bumping' the fret tops after leveling the frets to put the crown back on them. This technique is enough to restore the crown when the flat spot is narrow after leveling. When the flat top is too wide I'll first used a crowning file and then use the bumping technique to clean up after the file.

 

I've used various methods; sandpaper taped around fingers, folded over a piece of rubber, etc. Well, I decided to make a little tool to make this job easier. The pics below should be explanation enough, but the tool is nothing more than a couple of pieces of 1/4" maple, sheet of nitrile rubber, a dowel, and some bolts/wing nuts.

 

Just used it for the first time on a newly acquired Charvel and it worked great. The tool holds the sandpaper for you and the rubber allows the tool to give which is what is needed when you are only wanting to have it bump the fret edges.

 

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Thanks for sharing.

 

I love your sense of ingenuity.

 

When I was a kid, I would take apart old toys, appliances, etc, and whatnot and try to fix them, or would break them, trying to see how they worked. Most of the time I never had the proper tools to repair what I was doing, so I would just rob and cani8blize parts from stuff laying around, MAKE my own tools, and put back together what ever it was I was working on.

 

I got so good at it when I was a kid, that I used to brag to my friends that I could make or fix just about anything, WITH just about anything.

 

Alot of innocent helpless gadgets were destroyed in those early years, but the payoff as big.

 

Now I CAN pretty much make just about anything with just about anything.

 

As you have proven once again, neccessity will always be the mother ogf invention.

 

Why buy a tool, when you can make one yourself?

 

Thanks for posting this.

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Thanks for sharing.


I love your sense of ingenuity.


When I was a kid, I would take apart old toys, appliances, etc, and whatnot and try to fix them, or would break them, trying to see how they worked. Most of the time I never had the proper tools to repair what I was doing, so I would just rob and cani8blize parts from stuff laying around, MAKE my own tools, and put back together what ever it was I was working on.


I got so good at it when I was a kid, that I used to brag to my friends that I could make or fix just about anything, WITH just about anything.


Alot of innocent helpless gadgets were destroyed in those early years, but the payoff as big.


Now I CAN pretty much make just about anything with just about anything.


As you have proven once again, neccessity will always be the mother ogf invention.


Why buy a tool, when you can make one yourself?


Thanks for posting this.

So you were one of those kids that was happier with a broken toy than with a new one?

 

I thought that I was the only one. I swear man, if a toy wasn't broken it was going to be broken pretty soon after I got a hold of it. I never played with toys in the typical sense, I always wanted to change them, figure out how they worked, modify them, make them do something better or what they weren't ever intended to do in the first place.

 

I lived in the toolshed growing up. Used to piss my parents off terribly.

 

But the funny part was when I came home to visit after having moved out of the house for a few years. My mom had a ton of crap around the house that was broken. I asked what the hell my brothers were doing and they all basically said that they didn't know how to fix stuff. I never thought of it as a 'skill' I just assumed that everyone could look at something and just fix it. :lol:

 

And of course much later in life I've discovered that my wife's friends are all pretty damn jealous of her having a man around the house that can fix stuff. I catch her talking to her friends on the phone all the time and when they visit they just complain about how useless their husbands are. :blah:

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Thanks for the comments.


I read an ebook by Jim Donahue (Guitars, Design, Production and Repair) and he has a section on tools. He was the head of Ibanez worldwide quality control, and talks about all his homemade tools that he still uses to this day.

 

Great book. :thu:

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