Fret Miter Box

thingiverse

I needed a setup to cut frets into a fretboard for a stringed instrument I am building. I wanted something with minimal setup and would work with the Laser Cut Fretting Templates and the saw I purchased from C.B. Gitty. It has an index pin for the template at the slot. This design was inspired by a wooden miter box I saw on YouTube by Susan Gardener. Although I started from scratch and designed the miter box, I was influenced by JoeStapFPV https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4759097 in dropping the ends to save material, he has a nice efficient design. I decided to take advantage that the X-Y axis of my printer are dead nuts on. That means I can cut the slots for the saw blade without needing adjustments to make sure the cut is square to the fretboard. I designed the slots in my model to be 0.55 mm wide which is just enough for the sawblade to fit without play. This should work with other fretting saws. I added guides, either with bearing rollers or rub blocks that align the blade with the slots and keep any side pressure off the blade slots to prevent slot wear. I prefer the rub block version since they don’t have any play and I can add depth stop plugs to control the depth of each cut. The DepthStops mount on top of the RubPlates and the spine of the saw will hit these and stop the cut. The size of the DepthStop is easily determined by noting the height above the RubPlates the spine of the saw sits while resting on the surface of the fretboard and subtracting the desired cut depth. I suggest the miter box be screwed down to a flat piece of MDF to take out any warp that may have occurred during printing. The in/out blocks can be added to support the work piece infeed and outfeed. NEEDED: Qty 1: FretMiterBox Qty 4: M5 x 20 bolt and nut or wingnut If using rub plates Qty 2: RubPlate_Left, Qty 2: RubPlate_Right If using roller bearings: Qty 4: BearingHolder, Qty 8: 22mm O.D, 8 mm I.D bearings Qty 4: M8 x 40 Bolts with locking Nuts