MIMF

Hi, Stewmac sells a fine fret bender, but it's a little beyond my budget at the moment. So I put together this thing for about $10-15, and it seems to work ok. (Hmm, next time I'll upload the pics in reverse order.)

The lower picture shows the parts (sorry for the lousy picture) The rollers are screen door repair rollers (<$5). The two mounted on the block have a thin standoff washer so they don't rub on the woodblock, the third one has been grooved around the edge to accomondate the tanged edge of the fretwire, and it rides on a 1/4" axle with a barrel-nut. To assemble it, the compression spring is dropped into the hole in the woodblock, and then the barrel nut which rides up and down in the hole. Then the roller is placed on the axle and inserted into in the 1/2" slot, and the 1/4" axle passes through the wheel, the woodblock, the barrel-nut, and out through the back of the block. The hole is plugged with the brass insert & fine-thread screw assembly. The brass screw pushes the barrel-nut down against the pressure of the spring.

The upper picture shows the gadget assembled, with a piece of wire in place. The degree of curvature is set by cinching down the screw. Since it doesn't have a crank, it's necessary for me to 'help' the wire through by pushing/guiding with one hand, while the thumb of the other hand rotates the upper roller. But it works just fine. I suppose that I could make a crank that attaches to the roller with tiny screws (someday, maybe).

Simple, yet effective, is always a favorite; well done!

+1

I forgot something. There's a washer & wingnut on the axle, on the back side of the woodblock This locks the barrel nut in the hole, and so locks in the adjustment.

Another note: The lower rollers are 7/8" diameter, and the upper one is 13/16". The lines are scribed 3/4" apart. I think this makes the setting of the curvature with the screw adjustment a little less fussy, but the ends of the fretwire might not be radiused properly. It's also necessary to guide the wire so that it does not twist or bend in an undesired direction, but that's not to difficult to prevent. This thing could use a bit of tweaking, but in this case I think that the enemy of Good is Perfect.