3/11/24 11:35 AM

3/11/24 11:44 AM

Fret caul, not adjusted for radius yet. Trade you some brake pads for that. ;)


Now that you've started another fret thread.

Acquired this recently and plan on re-fretting with some jumbo frets. Planning a Peter Frampton tribute inspired mods. A middle pickup and cream trim appointments and gold speed knobs.



To look as such, including Shaw HBs I have and correct wiring as Framptons.

It will be Pre-Fenix burn damage. As on Frampton Comes Alive Album Art.

3/11/24 12:21 PM

This comes from my "Ridiculous Projects" file.

I spent the better part of a day machining this on my little Sherline vertical mill. Except for the brass insert, which I purchased because I didn't have any brass, or the tooling to accurately machine the fret groove. All of that work so I could press 15 frets for an ukulele kit we're building. It has a flat fret board, which is why the insert isn't radiused. (BTW, my other motivation was that I totally screwed up the fret board that came with the kit, and decided that hammering frets was a really dumb idea, at least for me.)

It's entirely possible that this little gem will never be used again, but I made it as much for the practice on the mill as anything. I had to explain to Linda that I was having fun making metal shavings. If nothing else, it looks nice and works great!

3/11/24 1:05 PM

You made that? Sometimes better to hit StewMac, sans wanting the practice. ;)

Elaine's Dad had a lathe and small upright end mill in garage. The path from the garage thru hall into kitchen, well the lino died the death of a thousand shard cuts. He finally put in ceramic tile. ;P

His vice was making traction engines with live steam boilers. Between us and the kids there are 4 that got handed down.

One is a 90lb pretty accurate version of one of these carnival tractors. Sans some of the fancy spiral supports.

3/11/24 1:40 PM

Trust me, I checked out StewMac's offerings, those on a few other luthier sites, and the myriad others on Amazon. But I looked at it and thought "I can make one of those cheaper than the good ones online, and better than the Amazon junk." I learned some valuable lessons and didn't shed a single drop of blood during the project...and I did have fun doing it. That's a win in my book! ;-)

It sounds like Elaine's dad was quite a character and apparently, a good machinist! I'm just a hack that likes to pretend he knows what he's doing.

3/11/24 2:22 PM

When we were only married a few years [40 now] her Dad asked if I'd help pick up something for him. I was a contractor and had Pickups trucks.

It was the small upright end mill mentioned above. It was sitting in a corner at his work for years but never got put back into use. And apparently a lot of the moving parts were missing. The gave it to him.

We got it down his stairs, the cast base alone was 200 lbs., the top more. As soon as we mounted the top back on the base, he went to bottom drawer of his toolbox and pulled out all the missing parts, and started bolting them on. I've no idea how long this plan was in the works. But I near cracked a rib, both from the haul and the funny.

3/11/24 2:28 PM

I love it! Too funny!

3/11/24 4:21 PM

Brian you could be a modern day Leonard Nitz and machine your own lightened components. :)

3/12/24 7:15 PM

Well, I'm definitely not at that level and my mill and lathes are too small for most bike-related items.

These days, most components are pretty well optimized for weight and function, plus most of the lightest stuff is carbon fiber, which is not a homogeneous material like metals are. I don't know how much there is to be gained. Granted, there are guys like Dangerholm who do some interesting modifications, but it's not like it was in the "drillium" days of the '70's and '80's.