A big factor when securing your frets, in my opinion, is what you expect from the instruments lifecycle. Super glue works well, but can be a serious pain if you are wanting to refret it later. It is common with guitars to use hide glue because if can be heated to soften it up if you later want to remove the fret. Also, what @dwain-wilder suggested is very clever.

Yes Ken I am actually playing a little bit and I feel there’s actually possibilities for me,I have also cut cherry for two more necks and some mahogany for the next fret boards ,walnut would be cool but that’s one wood I don’t have in my stock ,I do have a lot of cherry,they were right,they told me it was habit forming to build these ( for a woodworker) and even more so when it sounds good in the end…! I am thinking a Dulcimer is in the future.

Here’s no 2

9D2FCB63-6419-42EE-AF9A-78CA022C8780.jpeg  •  203KB

The picture of my cgb,unfortunately image was a bit downgraded

AFD9F39D-EA9B-483B-BFEB-10BF4E972CB6.jpeg  •  36KB

I'm glad you finished it and can enjoy playing it. Have fun.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I saw a poster once with a cat hanging from a clothes-line. The caption was priceless:

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted."

Happy building!

It lives,and sounds good now if I can only learn to sound good!

Oh I used a small wood clam p for the press ,a hammer being uneccesary I will haveto rub in some more Tru oil on the fret board and despite checking several times I ended up with two lefts and a right tuner instead of two rights and a left and they changed after the holes were drilled( dang poltergiests!) so one is backwards till I get another to match(.but nobody knows but us!) again thanks everybody

Well,I managed to fret and worked out well after all,the frets tang is smaller than I thought with the  “ teeth “ .010 I’m measuring them right now so I guess it’s not my saws fault,I guess I assumed they would be sized about .030 ,I looked at another brand,a popular brand on Stew Mac they were sized for tang  thickness at.037,not all of them have that dimension the tangs were also longer ,I guess you learn something every day wether you want to or not! Between glue and some fine scrap from my tables saw I got the job done and it seems strong.I also got the piezo installed ,a floating bridge,finished,the nut cut and finished and the tuners installed ,only thing left is strings, the piezo controls and Jack port holes and the tailpiece put back on,then I’ll hear what it sounds like,I’m still resizing the pics then I’ll put them up,all I can say right now is it’s a real purty  piece of woodwork!thanks for your help guys

Is your measurement of .031-.032 including the width of the barb tips? If you want a nice press fit, check the width of the tang, not the extent of the barbs. And the best width of the slot will depend on the fingerboard wood. For instance, I use fretwire with a tang width of .023 and barb width of .030.

I cut fret slots in black walnut (which is one of the softest hardwoods) using a .020" saw, and the tang pushes easily and firmly into those slots. But when slotting an ebony fingerboard I need a .023" saw, as that ebony isn't going to move over for nobody!

As I've written elsewhere, it helps a lot when sawing slots to fit the tang, to dress the edges with a small 45° chamfer, just a bit wider than the tang's barbs. This helps seat the frets vertically while inserting and also avoids grain pull-up and break-out when the frets need to be pulled.

One tip I learned for successfully using superglue to seat problem frets is to first apply a sizing coat to the slot walls. Easily done by putting a small bead of glue on an edge of a business card and drawing it through the slot. Let it dry, and it will keep the next coat, also delivered with another edge of that card, from wicking into the wood, creating a much better bond.

My own preference for inserting frets is a manual press. I made one out if scrap and fitted a shop-made swivel foot. By luck I chose just the right dimensions so I can actually feel when the fret is biting into the wood and when it has gotten flush down on the surface of the fingerboard. You can find a photo of it here: Using the Fret Press

And I follow that up with a check on fret leveling by using a collection of trusted straight-edges (the blades of machinist squares, in my case). The process is to start with the first three frets with a blade long enough to span them. If there is any rocking (I check both ends and the middle), I take that middle fret back the the fret press and give it a little more pressure, re-checking as I go so I don't over do it (which would make the next fret too high). Then I progress up the fretboard, checking each triad of frets for rocking on the middle one. I never have to dress frets with a file, using this technique.

Sorry, I may have written much of this before. My memory of what I've said before is lousy.

As Ken sez, a little ordinary or thin superglue will work just fine.  Ideally you'll find a fretwire source with a given tang width and buy a fretsaw with an appropriately thin blade.  Before I switched to staple frets I often used a jigsaw with an appropriate blade.

Using super glue makes the frets a little harder to remove if you ever need to do that, but not impossible. I've used super glue, the thin kind, after seating the fret and wicking a little under the fret. I haven't had one come loose yet. I do use it sparingly.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I cut my fret slots the saw cuts .031-.032 the frets I have  are just about .030 so there is grab but they can be lifted out easy,will super glue gel hold them or should I use another glue like epoxy ,my first fret job ,I put in a couple with super glue gel and they held while filing and fitting which can be stressful my concern is will it keep holding or shrink later,the right thing is a wider tang fret or a crimper but I am attempting to do with what I have .Wider tang frets are about .037 maybe enough for more grab.appreciate any help. Thank you