Bending Fret Wire

Before installing fret wire it should be pre-formed to a radii that is smaller than your fret boards radius. I found trying to bend it by hand or using hand tools resulted in unwanted inconsistency. These frets were not installed smoothly and as a result required additional effort during the fret leveling and finishing stage. As with anything else you craft, proper preparation equals increased quality and better final results.

After several tries to bend wire by hand and with hand tools, I determined the only way to get consistency is by building a fret wire bending jig. My approach was functional though not all that ergonomic. In retrospect, it should have been mounting to a stationary base to be clamped on the workbench. You can see in the pictures below, I cut a dado in the edge of two pieces of wood and a tenon on both sides of the center. About an inch and half was cut from the center and glued to the outer blocks. The outer blocks and this short center piece were glued together for form the body of the jig.

Through the smaller center I drilled a hole for the adjustment bolt. A matching hole was also drilled deep into the other center block which will slide up and down as needed in the dados. As you can see below, I epoxied a nut in this hole.

I cut three wheels using a hole saw. The smaller wheels are 3/4″ while the larger is 1 1/8″. These were temporarily mounted on a bolt, put in the drill press and shaped much like you would use a lathe. The two smaller wheels had a slight cove cut in their outer edge. On the larger wheel I held a fine tooth hand saw to cut a groove for the fret tang. These wheels were then mounted on the jig. The smaller wheels are free to spin, while the larger wheel was epoxied to the bold head and had a window crank handle mounted to the shaft.

I began by placing the fret wire in the jig tightened just enough for traction on the cranked wheel. After running the wire through, I would tighten the bolt at the bottom just one to one and a half turns then run the wire back through again. I continued until the radius was smaller than the fret board I was using.