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Fingerboard Radius Jig for Router

#21
Thanks Mike!

I actually sold one of these to a fellow TB'er this past week. Even tho he had the skills and means to build his own, I guess he lacked the time. I was still dreaming concepts for Mick Vaughn's bass, so in the meantime I knocked one out.

Untill he says he's happy with it tho', I'll not say who just now! It's in shipping now . . .
 
#22
Additional information:

I use a 3/4" Frued flat-bottomed "channel" or dado bit.

I've been asked if a down-cut spiral bit would work. I don't know why not . . . might even be an improvement on the bit I use.

I mill my fingerboard to just slightly thicker than final crown thickness, then set the router height, and mill the center pass first, working in small increments from the center to the edge.

My basic order of fingerboard procedure is:

1. Thickness plane and edge plane (joint) the fingerboard.

2. Cut the fret slots, if needed. I use the LMI power-slotting system with the sled that they recommend.

3. Radius the fingerboard (on the jig).

4. Taper the fingerboard to fit the neck.

5. Finish sand and oil the playing surface fingerboard. I use a custom blend of oil available from a company called "The Joinery" in Portland, OR.

6. Fret, and/or attached the fingerboard to the neck, or whatever you see fit to do with it at this stage!

7. Never, ever, call your fingerboard a fretboard. If you do, you will turn in to a pumpkin at midnight.
 
#23
Hey Cleve,
Have you given any thought to making multiple radii templates and just using 1 jig?

What I mean is, if each end could be fashioned so that you could slide in a particular radius that you need at the time (like a tongue in groove) and perhaps make these "slide in jigs" like 1/4" to 1/2" taller than the ends on the jig itself and of course adding that additional height to the bed. Just thinking out loud here......
 
#24
Rickett Customs said:
Hey Cleve,
Have you given any thought to making multiple radii templates and just using 1 jig?

What I mean is, if each end could be fashioned so that you could slide in a particular radius that you need at the time (like a tongue in groove) and perhaps make these "slide in jigs" like 1/4" to 1/2" taller than the ends on the jig itself and of course adding that additional height to the bed. Just thinking out loud here......
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact, yes I have! Only I'm doing it the hard way . . . I have different radii end-pieces that I unscrew and screw on as needed.

I like the idea, and it would lend itself to being able to adjust to "custom" radius requests very quickly and easily if one were building basses more often than I do! (I can't believe I been doin this over 2 years now and I've only completed . . . 3 1/2 goin on 5 . . . basses! jeez)

My original thesis was to offer only one selection of compound radius fingerboards: 12"/20". But then, with Mick's bass, I came up with the 9"/16" (is that right?!), so such a device would have been pretty cool

When you only do as many basses as I do --and, with the exception of the particular bass currently underway, I'm notoriously slow!-- there isn't any need for a quick-change kind of device!
 
#25
LedBelli Bass said:
When you only do as many basses as I do --and, with the exception of the particular bass currently underway, I'm notoriously slow!-- there isn't any need for a quick-change kind of device!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm certainly not as expeditious as i want to be yet either. But a slide in function would definitely simplify, from having to change the
ends every time, to a simple 5 second process.

I'm sure there's also a way to fasten to the jig, a micro adjustment, to adjust the overall height, so you can do multiple thicknesses too, for example, if you had to do 2 fretboards and one was 5/16" and the other was 1/4". Either a lever, set screws or such could extend the functionality even more.
 
#26
LedBelli Bass said:
The Jig:

The endpieces in their respective radii:

IMG_0336.jpg


To use: just tape your fingerboard to the bed. Set the pipe carriage on, put your router in the sled, set the proper heights, and go . . .
Click to expand...

Great info...

Question: Can you use this method with abalone or MOP blocks? I believe if you pass the router over them they will break and if you install blocks after radiusing the fretboard you won't be able to match the radius... Am I right?

Any solution to this?
 
#27
The inlay is done after the radiusing with a router based system for just the reason you stated. Some woods that are less prone to chipout can be precut for the inlay before radiusing. Most doing blocks will use a surrogate block for the radiusing, then inlay and sand flush after. There are many ways people do this.
 
#38
Hi guys,

Actually, the person who turned me on to the initial design of this jig has also developed a router jig design for neck profiling. The neck profiling jig is very different from this one, but also shares some of the same theory as to how it approaches the problem.

The luthier in question uses his neck profiling jig for acoustic guitars that price-point beginning at $5,000.00, and he is booked out for over a year. So, I think his end product is up to snuff, you know?

Since I will be visiting him this weekend I will try and get some pictures of his neck profiling jig. The only reason I have not adapted it is just due to time constraints and laziness . . . by the time I'm ready to profile a neck I am just like ready to carve it out.
 

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