# DIY fret crowning 'tool'- simple



## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

Here is how I made a fret crowning tool.
-get an old medium grinding wheel or grinding stone
-break it into approx 1 1/4" bits(you will need only one suitable piece, 'D' shaped)(wear safety glasses when breaking it up)
-using a coarse file thin it to a thickness that's 1.5 times the width of the fret at the straight part of the 'D'
-file the straightest side of the D for straightness( the straight side will be the cutting side)
-search for an approx 2" length of wood screw, the radius of the thread should match the fret crown you want to achieve
-use the wood screw to cut a shallow groove into the straight part of the 'D' by moving the screw thread back and forth
-this forms the crowning groove
-use the screw to re-groove if the stone starts to wear
Make sure to tape up the fingerboard at the fret(double or triple layer)
Different screw thread diameters make different fret crowns..also any screw type will work
Use fine emery cloth to remove grinding marks followed by finer wet/dry sandpaper and finally 0000 steel wool(tape up or cover pickups)
Use complete strokes along the fret, even pressure and speed.

Next week we'll start to make guitar strings from the steel belts of used tires
(((just kidding)))


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2009)

great idea! I've been trying to think of a 
way to make one for quite a while now.


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## Joestrummer (Feb 20, 2011)

*Fret Crowning idea for "El Cheapo" guitars where extra cost is not justified*

I thought your idea or grinding stone use a very useful idea for us who just want a guitar good enough for down-to-earth and dirty blues and do not have money.

I am finacially broke, so any cheap ideas are welcome. Neccesity being the mother of The Mothers of Invention (and all that Zap).

I saw a useful video, but cannot find it right now, as I got came across it from a link on a Telecaster forum and then took another link from there...I will try to post the link later. However this was a real craftsman talking about how to treat very high end guitars. I think you need to choose what standards of work you need. For me, being a non-professional, with cheap guitars, "good enough" is good enough. But even he, at the high end of things, used a simple "flapping" (his term) method of crowing new frets, by simply holding sanding paper loosely between is first and middle finger and zooming from one end of the fretboard to the other end (frets covered in masking tape first of course) and then also used a soft rubber square which he wrapped light sanding paper around to the same effect. No crowning tool used at all, apparently. This gave a rounded fret top, not the hard edged fret tops you see from a crowning tool. He was working on a Fender Custome electric. This got me thinking...Get a matchstick, and sanding one edge to about 2 thirds of its width...so it is about the finished width of the crown top of the fret you want. Then superglue sanding paper either side of this match stick, both hanging down facing each other, abrasive sides innermost. Fold the sanding paper back against the matchstick edge so the paper forms a hinge of sorts where they join the matchstick. Place upside down on a table and spread out the sandpaper (like a book opens I suppose) along these hinges, and now very carefully superglue on some thin plastic strips leaving just less, the depth of the fret. This is a very precise distance, and you may need to cut a strip of paper to the exact width you want, and place it between the match stick, on the face of the sanding paper, butted up to the straight edge of the plastic stip. This should leave a a very thin line of sanding paper either side of the matchstick. Again fold the sanding paper to form another hinge at the point at which the strips of plastic join the sanding paper. This will be very fiddly...using a straight metal ruler to bend this may help. Now you have a small item that can be turned back over and placed over a fret you want to crown. Hold it in place between your first and middle finger, letting the fingers press inwards gently onto the sides of the frets and also pressing downwards on the slippery plastic strips that should cover the fret board. There needs to be just a tad of the fret at the bottom covered by the plastic strip. No sand, by moving the thing back an forth. As at a very small part of the bottom of the fret is not being sanded away, eventually you should end up with a diagonal bevel on the sides of the fret, tappering up to the top of the fret. The top of the fret will not sand any thinner than the width of the (previously prepaired) matchstick if you are careful and do not blindly rub away with glee, and file on and on. Check from time to time. Would this work? I hope I have made the idea clear enough here. Possibly I need to make a video to show the idea.

Hard to explain, but perhaps it could work for those wanting a cheap solution without having to grind down stone. I have not tried it yet, but I have found a Les Paul Special copy body, with high frets and no pickups, going very cheaply for a few coins in a junk store, so am hoping to try this method out on this. If it goes wrong, no great loss I guess. It is not worth my spening large sums on "doing it right", but perhaps this cheapo guitar will be good enough for rock and roll one day?

I am not saying this will work, it is just an idea...certainly do not use this on an expensive guitar....take your axe to a luthier if it is precious.


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## Joestrummer (Feb 20, 2011)

Okay here's the link about "flapping" for new frets instead of fret crowning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-60xZVpZio&p=D65E8BFC21B63A99

He does say that for fret levelling he would actually use other files as well, this video is for new frets. But flapping may work to some degree okay, particularly if using a small square of rubber to flap with. If the link works it should take you to part 18 of a series of videos, produced by
The Musicians Den, Evansville. Myspace

I do not work for them, am not paid to mention this: it is just a useful item on Youtube.

Also, as one idea leads to another sometimes, here is another idea. It is much simpler than the earlier posting, and simple is better often. Well here's my big idea: a small strip of wood about the width of an ice lolly stick so it fits in all the fingerboard gaps, but it can be thicker than an ice lolly stick for ease of use, and only needs to be a little longer than the fretboard width. Bevelled the long edge of this strip of wood at the appropriate angle, so it will butt-up against the side of the fret at the angle you want to make. Cut thin strips of sanding paper (precise and fiddly job) and super glue this strip along the thin bevelled edge of the wood but leaving a tad of the lower part of the bevel (the edge directly against where the fret the fingerboard meet. Sand each side of the fret to the depth you require. If you get the angle of bevel correct to begin with, and you leave a tad of sanding paper missing off the bottom of the bevel then the small bit of sanding paper left off the bottom of the bevelled surface of the wood should stop you from sanding past the centre point of the fret at the crowing point on the top of the fret. As long as you continually press the wood into the base of the fret while you sand.

Someone could make some money, by making these simple boards, with sanding paper pre-attached. Also, if it works, someone could make folding strips of sanding paper, with strips of plain card, with very thin pinstripes of sanding material running alongside...(how do I explain this clearly?) These can fold along already made creases. So you get the same layout as you would with the matchstick idea, but the sliding material at the base of the fret, that slides along the fretboard, is the plain paper, then two strips of sanding material both the width of the fret height, and no sanding material inbetween them, the width of the crown you want at the top. You hold this between, that is running along the length of the sides, of your first and middle finger, with the fingers laying flat on the fingerboard parrallel and on top (each finger on either side) of the fret you are crowning.

Or....sorry to go on....a variation of ideas already posted, a small oblong of wood into which on one flat face is cut a V shaped groove with a flat bottom to the V. The flat bottom is the width of the top of the crown you want. Sandpaper is superglued in on both sides of the V, but non on the flat bottom of the V. This calls for some precision, but would be easy to manufacture in bulk once a machinist has set up a woodworking machine. The face of the block can be sanded down on the flat face with the groove in it, if the V is too deep to reach the fret fully. These could be made at different depths. You have just made disposable and cheap fret crowing tools. But I am not in a position to capitalise on this idea...and it may not work even.

Sorry for my spelling. Sorry for going on


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## Joestrummer (Feb 20, 2011)

Opps, the link above does not work.

Please try the following.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6OxZVpZio&p=D65E8BFC21B63A99

Or search for Musicians Den on Youtube

Also
Glenn on Myspace
or
Myspace


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

YouTube - refretting a Fender stratocaster PART 18 (recrowning/polishing the new frets)


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