Pulling frets created a mess on an ebony fingerboard!

[Paul Tinney]

Any suggestion on the best way to handle some chipping on the fingerboard from pulling frets?  I know...don't let it happen to begin with.  I'd like to believe this was unavoidable. 

I'm struggling with whether to try and fill them (ebony dust and CA) prior to re-fretting or wait until after the frets are in and hope that most are covered.  The trade-off being sanding and cleaning around an installed fret versus having to try and keep glue and dust our of the fret slots to begin with. 

I'm sure there is a preferred way...but this is all new to me.

Thanks,

Paul

[Mike Kolb]

You're right... the idea is to not have it happen in the first place:)  Next time, try coaxing the neck into as much of a backbow as you're comfortable with (it relaxes some of the pressure in the slots).

Lay-in a drop or two of water next to the fret you're removing, then heat the fret with a soldering iron. The water will let you know when the fret's hot enough and some steam seeping under the fret doesn't hurt either.

Also not a bad idea to tape-off against each side of the old fret... it may not prevent all the chipping but it helps...and it catches the larger chips for regluing.

Rock the fret loose with fret-pulling pliers (baby steps here) at one end until the frets starts to pop-up or rock with the pliers. I always imagine trying to pull a tooth... real carefully.

So now the frets are out and there's inevitably some chipping in an ebony board. Save the chips and note where they came-from, CA them back in before refretting.  The other boo-boo's get filled with ebony dust and CA.

Use a teflon 'fret dam' to keep the CA mixture out of the fret slots, but you'll probably still want to go back in and clean the slots out prior to refretting.

Probably not a good idea to "fret first, fill second" because working on the ebony smack up against your shiny new frets with files & sandpaper just invites problems... Have a ball! 

[Paul Tinney]

Thanks Mike.  You've confirmed where I was leaning already.  Where does one find a "teflon fret dam?"  I've used electrical tape on the edges by the binding but getting it in fret slots is not working.

[Mike Kolb]

Why, good ol' Stew-Mac... of course!  The nice thing is that they're cheap, which isn't always the norm for our friends in Athens, OH.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Fretting/Teflon...

[Russell Vance]

Yep, that"s the stuff I use and a little of it goes a long way - before I discovered this stuff I used a Delrin pick (plectrum) wrapped in brown shiny packing tape  - .41 mm ones,  to wedge into the fret slot before packing in the ebony dust and dropping in the superglue.   Works OK but the Teflon strips from SM are just the bomb you need. And, if you are gluing in chips with CA  I find a hypodermic needle point really good for positioning and holding the chip down until the CA goes off.  I don't use accelerator but I guess it would help here as well. 

Finally, if you are ordering through SM you may wish to buy some of their excellent text books on guitar repair procedures such as the Guitar Player Repair Guide, Fretting Guide, Trade Secrets etc, that way we won't need to have these conversations as much.  I (we) don't mind much helping but it's better to do it right the first time than have to try and salvage a situation.   Rusty. 

[Robert May]

HDPE plastic works just about as good as teflon. I cut strips of it from plastic gallon water bottles. I also have teflon sheet from McMaster or MSC, but later felt that was being a little extravagant, because of how well the HDPE works.

[Hesh Breakstone]

Nice tips Mike and Rusty - many thanks!

Some things to add if I may please.

First "pulling" frets is not really what you want to do.  If you look closely at the jaws of the Stew-Mac fret "removal..." tools, both offerings you will see the beveled edges.  The way things are intended to work is that the edges of the tools pinch under the fret wire and the bevels automatically, as the tools are closed more and more, "lift" the fret wire while, and this is the cool part.... ;) while the outside face of the tools remain flat against the fretboard all the while.

What this does is help prevent chipping the board as the face of the tools remain against the fretboard during the trauma of fret removal.  

A couple of things to note.  These days the current run of these tools are not the same tools that our daddies used...  What I mean more specifically is for about the last ten years or so the makers of these tools have been using a far shallower bevel angle which means that the lifting of the frets while the face of the tools remain in contact with the board is not as great as the tools from approx. 10 years or so ago.  If you can find or have the older fret removal tools they are far better at lifting the fret higher while the face remains in contact with the board pressing any wanna-be chips back in place.

The big point here is that you don't want to "pull" frets in the first place.  Instead permit the tools to work, even the newer ones, as intended.  It's possible that this "feature" of the original fret lifters has been lost in time as the current offerings are not as good as the older ones.  Nonetheless letting even the newer tools "lift the fret" without "pulling" upward at all does not even give those pesky chips a chance to get uppity...

Some boards just want to chip though and rubbing some water next to the frets as mentioned by our friends here is very helpful too.  Especially if you work in a direction in which the water has some time to soak in a bit.  What results is instead of chips you will see where the separations are happening and have the opportunity to CA the wanna-be chips back in place.  Don't worry about cosmetics, in the board leveling process you will make these glued chips disappear.  

I use a Weller old-school soldering gun that is indeed gun shaped and I bought extra tips and then with a small, round file filed one tip to have a fret crown shaped recess in the tip which goes a very long way in preventing the soldering iron from slipping off the frets.  It also provides more surface contact with the fret making heating faster, safer, and simpler.

Be careful of bound boards and how much heat you apply near the ends - it does'nt take much to melt some of the genuine, imitation plastic bindings either.

Something that will be helpful for the next Luthier who refrets this guitar after we are all dead and gone is to use a small trianguler file and after leveling/shaping the board ever so slightly bevel the fret slot edges to break that right angle.  The next time someone comes along to "lift" the frets there will be less risk of chipping and they will thank you for doing this, if you are still alive that is....;)  The alternative is that guys like me who are refretting an instrument that has already been refretted and has a chip-happy board might call you every name in the book knowing that you could have beveled the edges and didn't...  Kidding of course, well kind of... ;)

Hope something here helps!

[Paul Tinney]

Thank you all. This is great stuff.

[Paul Verticchio]

There is ALWAYS something cool to learn on Frets.com.  I picked up several "little finesse tricks" from this post.

Thanks to all of you guys & best of luck, Paul :-)