FRETS.NET

This fret bender does a great job, but I find the controls clumsy and imprecise. Here's a mod I did to mine using a drill and dremel:

 

From the working side of the tool I can adjust very quickly and accurately. Also, there is plenty of mechanical advantage in the lever to start the bend in the fretwire.


I wonder if anyone will find this helpful.

 

Simon

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Sweet
Hi Simon-- I have one of thoes fret benders that you have pictured and I set it at a bout a 7 inch radious when I first got it and I havent changed it yet and that was about 2 years ago-, however if you change the radious of your bends on a regular basis then your "mod" looks like a good one.. Peace 
Thanks, Donald. That would be the key...set it once and then leave it alone! I suppose that's what everyone does. I read the instruction to introduce the bend in stages, and I was trying to tighten the radius a wee bit with each pass, and getting frustrated by the wing nut. As an amateur I am obliged to take a few extra steps haha.
I build one of a kind instruments and do repairs, so I'm always changing the radius. That's a clever trick, thanks!

Same again, an easy fix - thankyou Simon.

Rusty.

Hi Simon-- Get a lawyer and patent thet thing before someone else does -- just a thought-- peace

Thanks for your interest Pierre-Antoine, Rusty, and Donald.

I appreciate the thought Donald, but I've been paid well enough by the tips I pick up on this forum. Like these stickies on my computer about glue that I wrote down from Rusty's post. Etc.

I'd be just fine if the maker of this tool improved it for the benefit of users  (and I'd be very surprised too.)

 

Simon

Damn.... I must be denser than most folks had previously believed.  What, exactly, does the extra arm do? And the little pin-thingie? I'm lost here. 'Splain it to me, Lucy.
The pin is a fulcrum, the arm is a lever. When you move the arm/lever it moves the bearing, which is on a cam. Thus, there is no need to move the bearing with your fingers and wrench. At least thats how I see it.

That's exactly so, Chris. Thanks for the explanation. The bearing is in a circular slot, and the fulcrum is in line with the center of the circle, so the geometry works.

 

Moving the bearing with a lever instead of with its axle allows it to be moved very accurately and in very small increments.

Simon, just to entertane a curious thought, would you be able to bend the fret wire without locking the allen screw; is there enough leverage to do so?

 

Not that one would want to do so. Just a thought...

Yes, you can. You can insert straight fretwire and use the lever to bend it to the smallest radius.

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