Just sitting back and enjoying this thread Spacey.....absorbing it all in.

spacey
Drew it's sure great now that we have options to get parts. I wish it would have been that way when I was young. 

Right. You could buy whatever the local guys had or you had to travel a long distance (if it was available at all).
 
The only downside is now we can spend hours and hours looking who has what (and for how much) and sometimes there are 50 different examples of every last little thing. I can't tell you how much time I've spent on stupid things like HB mounting rings. 

This is an attachment I received to today for my fret-slot saw.



One can imagine that cutting the slots before the fretboard has been radiused can
make it hard not to leave an undetermined amount of space under the fret tang that
has to be filled or to shallow of a slot preventing the wire to press in. 
The initial cut made by hand is when the fretboard is flat and squared- not yet with a radius or tapered.  Opposed to something like a CNC machine that can make the cuts after the radius and tapered cuts are made. ( It's late and I'm tired...hope that makes sense.) I know "they" still have to fill-in after the CNC cuts too on unbound fretboards. I think MusicMan has a very cool way of doing it but I'm not sure how all of them handle it.
I wanted to improve how I handled that step. Repeatability with accuracy.
I think I've achieved my goals.
 
Now I can cut the slots and have the right depth. It's not perfect because fretwire isn't but it is
most excellent IMO.
Now I can make the first cuts and the depth is correct in the middle and after the radius taper are  made then
I can set the cutting depth to the edges of the fretboard.
Since the saw cuts on the pull it's just a good, smooth, accurate method now. ( less chance of chipping the edge with cut made on the pull)
This shot was taken right after installing the frets- I filed just enough on the wires edge so I could see how well it worked.
 

Now I know the initial cut is spot on in location(s) and depth is correct from middle to edges of fretboard with minimal fill needed if any at all.
Major milestone in fine tuning one of the processes. Extra cutting steps added but well worth it IMO.
Smart tool attachment...glad I wised up and got it.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Once again - amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that stuff!

that tool is bad @ss....
looks like something from the SAW movie franchise....
 
 
 

Rain- you're welcome and thank you.
 
Well I can't say that I enjoy doing finish work...and now I'm on hold for about 30 days waiting for
the nitro to dry enough to fine sand and polish.
 
I made the mistake of applying the decal after the sand and sealer coat and then sprayed the amber tint. It wasn't chrome anymore! So had to refinish the front of head and take another go. Won't be doing that again.
Since it's a fretboard that is finished the I spray over the frets too. Nitro doesn't like metal so it won't be that hard to remove when it's time. As the decal they now do not look like the polished chrome that they were lol.
 
FWIW here is how it looks before I hang them up and wait...
 

 
Note: I can use this design because I don't sell guitars and this one is for me....besides, I own many Fenders and they don't make them like this.
 
 

∞

Mike,
It's only on one side of the blade. It's about 1/8" thick so it rides nicely on the fretboard when set depth is reached.
 
Holding the saw 90 to fretboard, not tipping the saw at the edge and not slipping out of the slot are controls not to mess up. Having the shallow fret slot to start with helps but one sure doesn't want to slip out. Slow and deliberate cuts with the right tool and it will work.
I cut from each edge of fretboard to center- when the depth is reached across the board the saw depth guide glides across the board.
After all the cuts are made it's very easy to look down each edge and see if all slots are same depth.
 
It's the first neck I've done that required no fill work at the fret ends.
Since the wood preparation was correct and the frets are pressed in it made leveling go easy with very little metal removed. 
 
Now that I believe I've found an excellent method for this type of installation I can move on to others such as bound fretboards.  
 
 
 

But it IS greener on the other side of that fence Mike. 
 

it looks awesome.
 
what do you use to take the finish off the frets, just a rub down with some steel wool?