Refretting a Micarta Fingerboard

[evtkw]

I have a 2001 Martin 000-16SRGT with a micarta fingerboard needing a fret job. Or is it ritchlite? Does anyone have any experience with these materials? Here are the things I’m wondering:

- Any way to tell between micarta and ritchlite?

- Can I use a soldering iron as usual to remove the frets? Any temperature setting?

- Will the soldering iron melt the fretboard if it touches it?

- I have read that people like to use .005 oversized fret saw to prevent backbowing – any opinions on this?

- Can I level the fingerboard with sandpaper? I have heard people say that micarta doesn’t need leveling, but this seemed a bit off to me.

- Should I glue the frets in? If so, any preference between super glue and white glue?

- Any other tips?

Thank you for any help you can give me!

[mirwa]

Nothing special really needed to do, just sand level and refret like any other fretboard.

Steve

[Pitar]

http://www.richlite.com/what-is-richlite/

Micarta and Ricklite are basically the same type composites of laminated materials and resins cured by compression and heat (thermoset) in machinable lay-ups.

Micarta, which I use a lot of in my aerospace applications, is a linen (bed sheet material) cloth in a resin-saturated thermoset product. I use it for various things from holding fixtures to supports for machines to tool handles and other applications where maintenance requires a tough, rigid, thermally stable and electrolytically inert material. Richlite employs the identical manufacturing process but can be a laminate of any material that accepts the bonding process, such as cloth and paper products, and made to order as such.

I actually wish I had either of them on my classical. It's the only guitar I own now and it's beginning to showing some wear and tear. But, I'm not a wood purist and don't really care (anymore) about such pedigree.

I work the Micarta, aka phenolic block, with the usual hand and machine tools with great results because of it's stability throughout. No worries about wood-related internal grain boundary and hardness deviation influences on cutting, drilling or shaping to be wary of.

In my early reading of the handling of Micarta there was a notice of personal safety regarding avoiding the inhalation of the dust. It was a known carcinogen in the state of California, where everything is classified as a carcinogen, so take that for what it's worth.

[evtkw]

Wow, thank you so much for your help! I have read accounts of the fingerboard bubbling with heat and having a "sand through" effect so that some layers of paper are revealed. Hopefully this will not happen.

When you leveled the micarta fingerboards you refret, did you have to use an oversized fret saw to prevent backbowing? I have read that backbowing is generally a problem with micarta.

[mirwa]

Any fret slot that is too tight can lead to backbow of the whole neck.

Hard woods such as ebony are renowned for this, so you need to be more critical of your fretslots.

Steve

[LouieAtienza]

Micarta and Richlite (and Arboite, Garolite, Tufnol, Paper Stone, even Formica and other plastic laminates) are just two brand names of a family of materials called phenolics, which are just layers of material such as paper, cotton fabric, canvas, fiberglass, CF, impregnated and bonded with phenol resin. I'd say the Micarta fretboard you have is paper-based, because cotton or canvas based phenolic leaves a little visible rougher texture when machined.

I've used phenolics for fretboards with great results. I do oversize the slots, though if you're inserting new frets I'd measure the tangs of the old and match the new or size them to match. Unlike woods, which will "imprint" the tangs in the fret slot wall, the phenolic has an amazing amount of spring-back (i.e. the tangs are held more by friction). It's also a good idea to chamfer the fret slot edges as you would with wooden fretboards.

As for heat, yes, excessive heat will delaminate the layers. It will also cause discoloration. But I'd also heat the frets a little before pulling them, as catching them on the edge of the fret slot could potentially cause delamination. There shouldn't be evidence of sand-through, as the layers are made of many thin sheets of [black] paper along its entire thickness. That said, it's very hard and stiff, so I would think very little if any trueing is necessary. You can sand it to 1000 grit, use a little oil and burnish the surface to a nice almost mirror-like jet black look.

White glue will not stick to this stuff. CA works pretty well.

Phenolics are my favorite engineering material, because of its wide variety of uses. I've used them for fretboards, brides, nuts (early Charvel electics used phenolic for nuts), as well as router bases, jigs... I even built my CNC with phenolic plate, as it's cheaper and lighter than aluminum, yet has comparable strength and is easily machined with common tools.

[evtkw]

Thank you! That was very helpful. The thing I'm most concerned with is heating the frets. I guess I'll still use the soldering iron, but very carefully...

What kind of CA glue do you use?

[LouieAtienza]

Don't have to heat them much... I pulled them out without heat, but I do bevel the slot edges.

I use ZAP water thin CA, but any other similar brand ahould do.

[evtkw]

Thank you again! I'll try quick heat with the iron.