Nut blank roughing

[watercaster]

This is what I use to hold the nut securely while shaping with a stationary disc sander.

It has one side rounded and the other flat with leather pads in the jaws.
It saves you fingers from soreness and getting sanded. I hold a small 1/4 sheet palm sander in one hand and the pinch vise in the other for final sanding and polishing.

 

[swarfrat]

Okay - I bought a couple preslotted/shaped blanks to kick this project along. They're flat - as in as flat as my aluminum sanding block. But it rocks in the nut slot, which also appears flat by my fret rocker, but it rocks by 0.030". After some digging - the slot is a tiny bit narrow in one spot. (My other W neck is like this - the nut slot gets just a half a smidge undersized near the treble end.) The bottom was flat but it was binding on the sides and not going down.

 

[Inkman66]

Most of the discussion I see for nut making is about slotting. I have a bunch of blanks from Philadelphia Luthiery and they're very thick for a fender slot, and almost big enough to get two out of. Needless to say sanding takes forever.

So far the best thing I've tried is a permagrit block. But I'm wondering if theres a better no power way. I say non power mostly because of where and when I work on guitar stuff. Dremel is loud, and I don't want a ton of dust flying in the bonus room.

Is there a better way? I bought one of the roller jigs which is ok for flattening the bottom. It's kinda of a pain for thickness. And it doesn't work with my permagrit block (too small) so the paper loads up quickly.

What tooth rasp/file works well for removing a lot of material quickly on bone?

I just use one of my wife's disposable fingernail files to get it 'close' quickly...then finish it off carefully with sandpaper.

 

[Swingcat]

Most of the discussion I see for nut making is about slotting. I have a bunch of blanks from Philadelphia Luthiery and they're very thick for a fender slot, and almost big enough to get two out of. Needless to say sanding takes forever.

So far the best thing I've tried is a permagrit block. But I'm wondering if theres a better no power way. I say non power mostly because of where and when I work on guitar stuff. Dremel is loud, and I don't want a ton of dust flying in the bonus room.

Is there a better way? I bought one of the roller jigs which is ok for flattening the bottom. It's kinda of a pain for thickness. And it doesn't work with my permagrit block (too small) so the paper loads up quickly.

What tooth rasp/file works well for removing a lot of material quickly on bone?

I always use GraphTech Tusq nuts on my Turbocasters, which are great sounding (although difference on fretted strings, and are slippery, which helps tuning stability.
I use 220 or 320 sandpaper on a hard surface mostly
Bonus is: they are made just slightly wider than the slot, so just takes a couple of minutes to fit them. Yeah, they cost a little more, but I feel they're worth it for my customers and definitely worth it on my own working Turbocasters as well.

 

[swarfrat]

The musiclily preslotted bone nuts are like final dimensions. I have vintage fret wire on here and with 0.013 clearance I was already at the gauge when filing.

 

[DrASATele]

I have tried a lot of the stuff in this thread. Lost many a callus using the ROSS and /or Big Belt sanders. Then I saw this tiny belt sander in Harbor Freight. It's a little bit louder than a dremel. It makes tweaking a nut's height or thickness a breeze and it comes in hand for other tiny parts