Walnut Stratocaster - Number 8 - Fretting

Because of the wood binding on the fretboard, I had to take a different approach to fret work. Typically I would just bend the frets to match the radius of the fretboard, cut them slightly wider, then hammer them in.

For this build, I have to trim the fret tang, and then file the underside of the fret flat.

I ran into trouble when I tried to seat the frets.

When hammering the frets, the edges popped up slightly from the fretboard. I was unable to seat the frets without gaps.

I posted a question on the TDPRI Tele Home Depot forum. Between the responses to this query and a brief conversation with someone at Stewart MacDonald I was able to find a solution. It involved using a little glue and a fret press attached to my drill press.

After these results, I will start using the fret press instead of the hammer. I'm really pleased with the outcome. I had purchased the press a few years ago, but I was unhappy with the results. The problem was that the drill press table would give a little when I pressed in the frets. This time at the recommendation of someone from Stewart MacDonald, I secured the drill press table. Now with a firm base, the frets popped securely into place and stayed.

Walnut Stratocaster Or Number 8 - Fretboard

For my latest project I decided to build a copy of a Stratocaster. I chose walnut and maple for this build. In some respects, this will be similar to the Junior project from last year.

As always I start with the fretboard and neck. The first step is to cut the fret slots. I'm using a bird's eye maple for the fretboard.

I decided to try my hand at a binding for the fretboard. I chose to create a three layer wood laminate. In this case walnut/maple/walnut. I used a process that I will describe in another blog post - heat-activated gluing.

After gluing the laminated pieces together, I cut the binding to a 45 degree angles so that I could fit the bottom piece and ensure continuity of wood.

To glue the binding to the fretboard I created a jig using two long boards and one small cut of wood.

I applied the glue to the binding, then pressed it against the fretboard with the extra wood clamped into place.

Here's the fretboard after gluing. This will be cleaned up after I sand the 9.5 inch radius of the fretboard.