Essential Nut Making Tool Kit
V-5350
Dan Erlewine shows what's in the kit and what each tool is for.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Essential Nut Making Kit]
The essential nut and saddle making tool set
Dan Erlewine: Here's the essential nut making kit. There's two shaping files with a different cut on each edge from coarse to extra fine. The coarse can hog away bone in a hurry. Extra fine can make it look pretty when you're done. The String Spacing Ruler, this lays out the strings proportionally and takes into account the wound strings, they're fatter than unwound strings. I use this also if I'm making a bridge for an acoustic guitar, to lay out the bridge pin holes proportionally or like on a Tune-O-Matic bridge if I'm cutting new saddle slots, lay them out with this just like you do the nut. There's a 10 thousandths razor saw. This is perfect for starting any slot because it's tiny, cutting on one of the string slots anywhere from eight to 22. A 10 thousandth saw can cut a 20 thousandth slot if you roll it. And there's four Slotting Files. These have a different cut on each edge and they're round bottomed, so they fit a string perfectly.
The Feeler Gauges are to slide in between the frets and find out how tall are your frets by putting a Straightedge across that. And when you know that you add a certain amount for the height of the string over the first fret, we usually add about 10 to 30 thousandths. When you figure that out, you slide both of those under the strings and that's the depth stop, as you're cutting your slot you can't go too deep. You'll hit that stainless steel and stop. We made this Vise, especially for shaping nuts and saddles. The jaws are very tall, which gets you up off the body and they're angled so that you can back file nut slots, you can round the top without hitting the vise body. It's the Essential Nut Making Kit.
