Cheap alternative for nut files?
 

Anyone have cheap alternative for bone nut files? Cheaper than the $19 sets on ebay?

Here's a recent thread on that very subject:

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=360409

Short answer: not really.

The answer is yes, just made some feeler gauge files and they work so good! $3.99 harbor freight. For the E and A stings i JB welded the feeler gauge fingers together, file round them and diamond wheel drimel cut very very little groves in them on the top and on the rounded sides. It feels duller than a butter knife but cuts bone like a champ and comes out with nice rounded slots.

eewww. cmon dude shell out $20 for some proper tools

Those $19 ones on eBay are made in China junk - not "real" tools IMO.

I've shopped quite a bit and you can't find decent nut files for under ~$75

My first files were like that. I guess they are probably saws, not files. They lasted for about 10 nuts before they were too dull to be practical. They work well for a few jobs though.

The problem is im trying to get enough tools together to build a guitar that i dont already have. When you need a ton of specialty tool that cost $75 -$150 each, well thats just not going to happen for me or make sense to me money wise. If i ever start selling some guitar yea haha.

You say the China files are junk, not real tools. To me if it cuts its a tool and if it doesnt wear out super fast whats the problem?

With my feeler files they are perfectly rounded to fit the string and they work, whats the problem? If they need teeth cut in them every 10 nuts so be it. You need to sharpen your chisels dont you?

As far as I can see, any way that works for you is the 'right' way.

$20 IS cheap.

That's wise advice.

The reason I said "Not really" is that, while it's possible to make nut files cheaply, once you figure in the time you spent making them versus how long they're going to last once they're made, and how often you might be using them, I felt that you're better off buying ones than making them. But that depends entirely on how you value your time, and how often you're going to be using the tools. It's entirely possible to make these tools cheaply, but you're going to end up with cheap tools.

It's part of the "Harbor Freight" syndrome, I guess. When I was production manager for a factory and we wanted to see if specialized tools would help a certain manufacturing process, we'd buy the tools from Harbor Freight. If the new setup worked as expected, we'd invest in better tools that were designed to last a long time, and keep the Harbor Freight tools as backups.

My first nut files were saber-saw blades that I ground down to specific thicknesses on a whetstone. After a few hours, I had four files that worked for the mandolin slots I was cutting. But after starting to branch out into octave mandolins, guitars, and such, I realized that I'd need many more files, in more gauges. That was what convinced me to spend the $70 or whatever it was go get a set of files that worked right out of the box and would keep working for as long as I was building guitars, after which I could sell them for close to what I paid for them.

But, as Alan says, the way that works for you is the right way.

I have made nut files by grinding down small saws to different thickness and using very small files as well but only because I have access to many tools since I work in a tool room, if I didnt, I would say 19 bucks on a set is a good investment.
Even if the files are cheap, you'll only be using them on soft materials like bone or plastic so they'll last.

By then you know the good files will be a good purchase. If you only used the cheap ones once or twice then they did what they were supposed to do.

I bought one of those cheap sets just to see how bad they might be. They are OK. They cut. I got my $20 worth. I will get a much better set later when I have the opportunity.

-r