I borrowed a friend’s SM nut slotting gauge and really liked using it. Was about to pull the trigger and buy one until I saw the price. Remembered that I had a dial indicating gauge in my tool box. Decided to make my own. Used a piece of Jarrah. Drilled the 3 holes based on an acoustic I had close by, then drilled to fret hole across the 3. Then I cut the slots to the holes with the bandsaw. Drilled the hole for the gauge and a set screw. I am still tweaking it, but it works great. The gauge came from HF and was cheap. If you buy one you will need to take back off and remove the return spring. It is obvious once the back is off. The spring was pre-loading the string. Gravity works fine for this. One last thing I will do is cut the end of the gauge off since it sticks out a bit.
DIY Nut slotting gauge.
- Thread starter 1bad914
- Start date
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Very nice!
JuneauMike
Poster Extraordinaire
That's cool. I'm amazed at how many of the StewMac and LMI tools used by luthiers appear to have come from the machinists trade and otherwise were modified for use on wooden instruments.
If you are curious about tools, this page is a gold mine. Frank Ford is thankfully very generous with his knowledge. http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/pagelist.html#Luthier
If you are curious about tools, this page is a gold mine. Frank Ford is thankfully very generous with his knowledge. http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/pagelist.html#Luthier
Good eye. It was handy. Lol
archetype
Fiend of Leo's
In a Venn Diagram of metalworking and woodworking the area of correspondence is pretty large.
I use precision measuring tools in wood and translate all fractional measurements into decimals. I have a background in metalworking and machine design, w-a-y back, and treat wood as metal with a much higher cutting speed.
JuneauMike
Poster Extraordinaire
My dad was a machinist, that's why it rung a bell with me. But unfortunately even at my ripe old age I still have to whisper to myself "Leftie, loosie, righty, tighty" right before I turn a wrench. Same tree, very different apple. LOL.
I've been using feeler gauges for so long that it would be hard to change. I also measure back fret and next fret clearances which seem to require feeler gauges. However if it works for you then its a great tool.
old wrench
Poster Extraordinaire
Nice job on that @1bad914 
!!!
I made one of those critters myself thinking it was going to very useful.
I made it out of a couple pieces of brass and silver-soldered them together.
I found that I needed to dis-connect the tension spring inside the dial indicator so it wouldn't press down too hard on the string and skew the dimension.
The down pressure of the plunger on the indicator has to be just right so it doesn't deflect the string that you are measuring.
It works very well, but after using it a couple of times, I found myself going back to my old way of measuring with feeler gauges. You can probably tell by the amount of dust on the tool that I haven't used it for quite awhile.
I think it's one of those tools that seem good in theory, but come up short in practicality.
Feeler gauges are very accurate, they are either "go" or "no go" - no question about string deflection throwing the measurement off.
.
!!!I made one of those critters myself thinking it was going to very useful.
I made it out of a couple pieces of brass and silver-soldered them together.
I found that I needed to dis-connect the tension spring inside the dial indicator so it wouldn't press down too hard on the string and skew the dimension.
The down pressure of the plunger on the indicator has to be just right so it doesn't deflect the string that you are measuring.
It works very well, but after using it a couple of times, I found myself going back to my old way of measuring with feeler gauges. You can probably tell by the amount of dust on the tool that I haven't used it for quite awhile.
I think it's one of those tools that seem good in theory, but come up short in practicality
.Feeler gauges are very accurate, they are either "go" or "no go" - no question about string deflection throwing the measurement off
. .
JuneauMike
Poster Extraordinaire
That thing still looks cool as hell! Kinda steampunk, really.Nice job on that @1bad914
I made one of those critters myself thinking it was going to very useful.
I made it out of a couple pieces of brass and silver-soldered them together.
I found that I needed to dis-connect the tension spring inside the dial indicator so it wouldn't press down too hard on the string and skew the dimension.
The down pressure of the plunger on the indicator has to be just right so it doesn't deflect the string that you are measuring.
It works very well, but after using it a couple of times, I found myself going back to my old way of measuring with feeler gauges. You can probably tell by the amount of dust on the tool that I haven't used it for quite awhile.
I think it's one of those tools that seem good in theory, but come up short in practicality
Feeler gauges are very accurate, they are either "go" or "no go" - no question about string deflection throwing the measurement off
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I was thinking about this thread yesterday while making a nut for a classical. I think it would be slightly more fiddle with all the zeroing, about as accurate, harder to do the next fret clearance thing. Much more accurate as I move down the neck (I usually only measure 12th fret action to +/- 0.010). It took me about an hour and a half to make a bone nut and saddle from scratch. Just another way to skin the old kitty.
