Fret Arbor Press – StewMac

Fret Arbor Press System

A fretting factory on your workbench! Our veteran fretting experts developed this unique system for speed and accuracy.

You won’t find a more thoughtfully designed and efficient arbor-based system! It’s far more versatile than generic tool catalog arbors. It can fret an entire unglued fingerboard, a bolt-on neck, and most of an attached neck, quickly and consistently.

Why press frets? Faster and more consistent than hammering (and a lot quieter!), arbor-press fretting is preferred by many guitarmakers. Pressed-in frets have fewer loose ends and more uniform heights, because there’s none of the recoil produced by hammer blows.

The complete #4481 Fret Arbor Press System includes:
• Heavy-duty cast steel arbor press
• Self-leveling Fret Press Caul
• Five radiused/grooved brass inserts for the caul
• Table with fence attachment
• Hardwood neck support
• Instructions

#4480 Fret Arbor Press Only includes:
• Heavy-duty cast steel arbor press
• Table with fence attachment

Note, the Fret Press Only option does not include the Fret Press Caul attachment, and is intended for those who already have the caul (commonly used in a drill press).

Designed and refined by StewMac fretting experts. Four interchangeable 2-1/2″ grooved brass inserts match standard fretwire radii (7.25″, 9.5″, 12″ and 16″), and a special 6″-radius insert holds down the fret ends when you’re using glue. Additional insert radii are available separately. The arbor has an adjustable steel pinion for firm pressure.

Built-in lever return spring. The pressing caul won’t fall down and dent your work—makes fretting much easier and less cumbersome. A StewMac exclusive, this is the first half-ton arbor press to feature this innovative spring recoil.

Pinion locking screw. Locks the caul down for clamping a glued-in fret (a handy feature suggested by luthier Bryan Galloup).

Versatile table attachment. The system now includes our 24-3/8″ x 3″ table attachment with fence, for fretting unglued fingerboards. Adjustment screws move and rotate the table forward and back, to center the fingerboard and precisely align the frets beneath the pressing caul. A thumbscrew locks the table to the arbor.

Faster fretting for production work. The table fence has a retractable indexing pin that works with the notches in our Fret Scale Templates. Attach a slotted unglued fingerboard to a matching template with double-stick tape, and the pin aligns each fret directly beneath the pressing caul. A real time-saver!

Fret glued-on fingerboards, too. Simply remove the table and use the contoured 12″ x 2-3/4″ x 1″ cork-lined hardwood neck support included with the system. (Tip: it’s also a handy lower clamping caul for gluing a fingerboard on a neck.)