Make Your Own Fretwire Bender

How to make your own fretwire bender. Not too hard and it saves a lot of money doing it yourself. This is for a 12" Radius. I wanted 16" so I'm going to make this thing adjustable. The measurements are screwy because I made first and measured later. To long to explain but it does work. If you want it adjustable for different radii, just make one of the lower bearings movable in a slot.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Fretwire
• Fret
• Wire
• Bender
• Homemade
• Radius
• Guitar
• Bearings

[ugotit33x]

Thank you for the design layout and measurements. I made one to check it out.

It works great. Will modify it so it is adjustable for different radius now that I have

an idea what I'm working with,

Cheers

[Virgil605]

@ugotit33x Awesome! I'm glad I could help.

[GunsNSnakepits]

I'm a little confused... Are the measurements for a 12" radius or 16"?

[Virgil605]

I thought it was for a 16 but it turned out 12. I'd just make one of the lower bearings adjustable so you can tweak it to get the radius you want. good luck

[guitarslf132]

@Virgil605 ooohhhhh so if i follow this it will be perfeck for a gibson style fret board right??

[Virgil605]

If you make one of these just make one of the lower bearings adjustable and it will make whatever radius you want. I think gibson are 12" radius but don't quote me on that.

[wlindenlaub]

@hpodell Thanks for your reply. I actually did find some at Ace Hardware. They weren't the exact size but I was able to modify the holes to make them work. Ace charged $10.00/piece for the two bearings. Still, quite a bit less than to buy the fret roller. Thank you for your video as I'm sure you've saved many people money including myself.

[hpodell]

@wlindenlaub A great source for bearings are in line skate wheels. A set of eight wheels including sixteen bearings will run about $18.00 on Amazon. I use these bearings and the wheels for all sorts of projects and the price can't be beat. OSH sells similar bearings for about four bucks a piece. Hope that helps.

[wlindenlaub]

Where do you find the bearings? I've checked Home Depot and Lowes Hardware and neither of them had them. Great video by the way.

[johnmartin60515]

Great plan, great instructions, horrible song

[VirgilGuitar]

Wow, so we build guitars and named Virgil at the same time?

[JimmyPage968]

@Virgil605 Yes, most Gibsons are 12" radius.

[bluzcat63]

Awesome detail! Where did you get the bearings and locking shaft collars? I checked at Lowes and Home Depot but they didn't have them.