Fret Slotting Table Saw Blade

This circular saw blade, when mounted in an accurately set up table saw, cuts a fine slot that readily accepts the frets, whether installed by press or soft hammer. It does however, require a sliding jig to present the fingerboard to the exposed blade at a precise angle, indexed by an accurate template. The flat plate(MDF)jig in the photo is held at right angles to the circular saw by a long timber strip that slides in the table top LHS channel, with a further two small guides on the RHS. The fret indexing guide is fixed by screws to the reversed blank fingerboard and registers on a pin in the sliding jig. The accuracy of the fret spacing is assured by the jig fixed to the fingerboard and does not require any further measurements.
I have been using the S-M pullsaw jig, which is quite satisfactory, but in my opinion, requires more care in execution to obtain the correct depth and clean cut.

I don't think that any other tool in my shop has saved me more time and money than this blade coupled with the frett board template.

For years I have been cutting my fingerboard slots with a .023" blade on my trusty Dremel 4" table saw. The motor died while I was using it to get fretboards ready for an upcoming Workshop. I ordered the Fret Slotting Table Saw and all I can say is WOW!!!! I did manage to find another Dremel table saw on e-bay but I will use that for other things. I will stay with my Stew Mac Fret Slotting Table Saw. It adds a great touch to the cast iron 1957 Vintage Craftsman 11" Table Saw I have had and used for the past 38 years.

just buy the saw and we are very pleased with our results, we improved a lot, our work was faster and preciso. Obrigado stewmac for us to offer excellent products with many great values​​.

I made a small table saw sled to hold the fret board true, and I can now cut all fret slots for a fretboard in minutes instead of hours and days by hand. I only plan to do a few fretboards a year. If you have a reasonable quality table saw it is worth it!

Can't believe how smooth it cuts, it's not carbide tipped, but there is no tear out at all. Very please with how well it cuts.

Great service thanks. Having cut fret slots by hand, this blade should make a big difference. I fitted it onto my small bench top table saw and immediately found that the blade was not running true. This had not been apparant on thicker blades. After checking I found that the clamping discs either side of the blade were not quite square to the arbour, only by a small amount but enough to make the slot too wide. A bit of time trueing up on the lathe sorted the problem. Now it cuts just the right width. Worth checking!

Best StewMac purchase I have made; by far my favourite item! Slots a fretboard in five minute on the radial arm saw. It would be hard to go back to doing it by hand now if I for some reason had to.

Bought your fret slot blade but had to go elsewhere for ukulele templates. Just cut five soprano fretboards in about fifteen minutes. It used to take ten hours to do the same with less accuracy. blade perfect, you need to recognize the need for ukulele builders with templates for all four sizes.

This blade has allowed the use of many more woods beyond Ebony and Rosewood for my fretboards. Bubinga, Bocote and beyond, the worlds forests are the only limit and the results are perfect.