Other sources for low runout collets?

[Dan Hintz]

Mike,

He's looking for a high-precision collet and you suggest one with up to 3 mils of runout?

[Mike Heidrick]

Dan, ever known a luthier and talked to him about his work?

Many many fret boards are cut with a dovetail saw by hand in a homemade miter gauge.

Three thousandths runout in a hitachi router cutting in wood - sooo many levels of runout in just that one sentance. Here is the good new - three thousandths runout is not going to make your fret wire fall out of the slot. Not to mention the fret wire is typically either hammered in and held in by its barbs (in which the hammering metal into the wood will cause more damage than that level of runout - again thousandths) or epoxied into the slot meaning that level of precision was never required anyway. Woodworking is not metalworking. Many times we get caught up in desiring accuracy that a wood environment is never going to allow us to operate in.

An example of a typical fretboard cutting setup:

[Dan Hintz]

I'm somewhat "new" to craftsman-quality woodworking I'd be happy to take that strip of wood off of your hands, though

[james mcgrew]

i gotta agree with whoever that inserts are not a favorite for reducing collet size where cnc is concerned, i have purchased all appropriate sizes of collets needed after some disasters with inserts (reducers)

[Matt Clara]

I'm somewhat "new" to craftsman-quality woodworking I'd be happy to take that strip of wood off of your hands, though

I have some cocobolo that looks just like that (of course, I have some other cocobolo that looks nothing like that).

It's true, I currently cut my frets with an aluminum miter box and a japanese pull saw, but the saw is .019 thick, and the slots end up .023. I've purchased a .022 bit from precise bits and am hoping my slots end up .023--if there's too much runout, they will be too wide.

[Mike Heidrick]

You do have some exacting requirements then. I guess the nice thing is once you buy the precise collets you would have the best so far for the Hitachi. Ever think of going spindle as well Matt and just dumping the router and its limitations?

[Matt Clara]

You do have some exacting requirements then. I guess the nice thing is once you buy the precise collets you would have the best so far for the Hitachi. Ever think of going spindle as well Matt and just dumping the router and its limitations?

You are not incorrect when you indicate there's a little room for slop. There's no such thing as perfect intonation on a fretted instrument, and even the most accurately fretted instruments can give voice to incorrect intonation depending on how one places one's fingers when fretting (too hard, too light, not close enough to the fret, or too far away). But I want to do the best I can.

I'm ignorant of my router's limitations, but I knew it was well regarded and that good spindles cost more--I educate myself on the advantages of a spindle and then likely add one to my wish list. Heck, I'm still dreaming of a Stinger! (And speaking of wishes, I wish Joey had pointed out the option to finance his company offers. I've had this kit for a month and a half and I'm still just working my way up to making some cuts!) Of course, now I'm dreaming of the Stinger II with spindle! Have they even listed a price on that sucker yet?

Jim and Dan, thanks for pointing out the Z axis zero function--totally different way for me to look at the zeroing axes. Do people zero all three axes over their stock every time they make cuts, is that how it works? I've been thinking of it more like a printer, where the printer carriage starts in an upper corner and then proceeds over the entire paper (table) surface.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Three thousandths runout in a hitachi router cutting in wood - sooo many levels of runout in just that one sentence. Here is the good new - three thousandths runout is not going to make your fret wire fall out of the slot.

When using small bits, excessive runout can cause them to break easier.
I think that's a bigger benefit of the precision collets.

[James Leonard]

Hi,

Normally the limit switches will set a table zero point. Then if you have hard fixturing you can set fixture offsets either in Mach3 or by just doing it on your drawing. I don't have limit switches but I do have fixed size pieces of both mother of pearl and recon stone. My layouts for the pearl blanks (1.000 x 1.500 x .060) are referenced to the lower right hand corner of the blank so I jog my table manually to put the tool over this corner then zero the XY position. I then touch off the tool in the center of the pearl. With Mach3 you can jog at two different increments. I just jog down close to the surface, then press Control-J to go to a .001 jog increment. I touch off by sliding a piece of paper back and forth until it is grabbed lightly by the tool. I remove the paper, jog down .003 more then set the Z axis zero point. I raise the tool slightly and then start the GCODE program running.

-James Leonard

[Dave Spitzer]

Matt,

Go to http://www.machsupport.com/videos/ Artsoft (Mach3) has many training videos available for viewing. You can either download to you computer or watch in real time if you have a fast connection. You, may be interested in watching the video "Homing, Limits, and Offsets".

Hope this helps.

Dave