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In the end of the day , Luthiery is the art and perfection ( at least it should be ! ) .
I imagine that this is a labour of love, a quest for perfection, an engineering challenge ...
or could it be commercially viable?
Initially , this project started as a need , and later in the process became an ambitious challenge for myself to create something special , that would satisfy myself on every area of it .
At that point I was planning to get this available to more people and maybe even commercially .
Today , looking at it , I think I was a bit over enthusiastic and didn't realise the cost , time and probably the most important factor , quantity needed to make this profitable .
Having failed on previous attempts with my bosses ( making some luthiers tooling ) I don't think anyone would want to make this for such a small market , sadly .
To put this into perspective , those fret benders would need to be made in batch of 500 .
And that's a minimum to make it worthwhile and possibly not great income .
That's why in the end I had treated it as a hobby project .
Anyone wanting to get involved in making this happen commercially , I would probably be open to help .
On the good note , I can say that , I will have 6-7 units available at some point , with slightly different colour of screws and top knob.
Possibly withing a month or a bit more as I am currently on furlough .
Hence me thinking that it was more a labour of love than an intended commercial venture. Shame though - it is a thing of beauty. Congrats on persevering and producing it.
Couple of parts are assembled already , and cannot be taken apart .
On this particular fret bender I have used ceramic bearings for main drive and handle .
Elsewhere either hybrid bearings or abec 5 ( highest available on particular size and type ) .
Main drive wheel is made out of titanium and so are top M6 bolts and one at the end of handle .
Body is made out of solid aluminium ( aircraft specs) .
All 4 bolts for front bearings , brass insert for main wheel drive and handle are made from brass .
And all other metal bits made out of 304 and 316L ( 2 front wheels for straightening ) stainless steel .
Precision engineering, bet it feels great to use?
Congrats again on a great piece of work, sir.
I was considering making electric fret bender with a motor built in etc .
Unfortunately I have zero knowledge and experience with electric motors and PCBs .
I have recorded a short video to show it in action .
Never done any YouTube uploads so don't kill me
Ideally though if you just bend a wire , solid wheels are better and won't leave any witness mark on smooth surface of a fret wire .
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1