Fret Not - Refretting a Brand New Neck, and Breakthroughs

I knew putting the frets in would be fraught with danger, and that I would do a less-than-perfect job.  Accordingly, I launched into it without even thinking and put the frets in with a plastic faced hammer after bending the fret wire.  I forgot to round over the sharp edges of the fretboard.  Some of the frets didn't seat well.  I beveled the edges of the fret slots too deep in places.  When I ran my file along the side of the fretboard, some of the frets rocked in their slots under my fingers.  All kinds of little things went wrong.  It was another low point in the journey.

Enough of uncertainty!  I decided to remove the frets and refret the neck already.  This time, I'd glue them in like a freak.  I've read all about the right way to do it, and that gluing is not required.  And how, if I ever want to refret this thing for real in the future, gluing can contribute to a bigger mess. I've read it all.  It didn't work out like that, okay?

I tapped out the frets from the edges where they hung over, because I don't have a pair of end-nippers that's totally flush-ground.  Of course the fingerboard chipped out in several places.  All the chips stayed where they belonged except for one, by the edge, which I will fill later with an epoxy/rosewood dust mixture.

First I rounded the fretboard edges properly.  Then I cleaned out the fret slots with a pull saw, deepening them slightly to accommodate glue in capillary fashion.  I surmised that the reason for some of the unseated frets was inadequate curvature of the fretwire, especially near the nut; I had enough fretwire left (almost a whole 2 foot length) to increase the curvature and redo 1-5 new.  Others I rested in a concave cut at the end of a 1x4 and tapped with the hammer to bend deeper.  The rest just went in.  There was enough grab left in the fret slots to hold them flush.

After I was satisfied that the frets were seated well, I put a fine tip on the glue and went off the hook.  This stuff is so watery it wicked everywhere.  I think it shows in the following picture:  some of it went down the grain from deep inside the fret slots and popped out in random endgrains in the area between frets, like running down a wormhole.  Amazing.

Well, they ain't going anywhere.  Sure, it looks crappy.  I'll try some toluene to clean it up.  While the glue was curing, I made the rough cuts to widen the nut slot for the LSR roller nut, which is wider than a regular nut and pushes toward the first fret.  I made the vertical cut freehand with the pull saw, and the bottom cut with a coping saw.  I would never have done either of those things before I started this project, but I was able to do it and not screw it up.  Yes, I'll be cleaning up the slot with needle files (very carefully).  No, it's far from perfect.  Yes, it will take me longer than it takes anybody else.  But I'm going to cut a really good nut slot freehand, and it's going to work well and look nice when I'm finished.  That's amazing to me.  I'm learning a lot.

I discovered something incredibly new about filing today that's also blindingly obvious.  While beginning the process of filing the fret edges flush to the fretboard, I started to get discouraged.  It's a lot of work, and those frets are hard.  Maybe they're not stainless, but they're not very soft either.  But by running the file down the frets until they were all about the same height, I found it going faster than I imagined it would.  I realized that when I took care to keep all the fret overhangs even, the file works on them all at the same time, and long even strokes do all the work magically.  I knew that, but now I really know it in my bones.  It's one of those little things that open my eyes a bit.

Currently I'm still evening the fret edges.  My file is not attached to a board like those fancy ones you can buy, so it's not as smooth as it could be.  But I'm using what I've got, which I got for free.  After that I'll bevel them a bit (less is more - you can't put it back) and clean up some of the CA.