doing my own work replacing both the Nut & Saddle on my Gibson J-45...
 

Im looking for opinions on doing my own work replacing both the Nut & Saddle on my Gibson J-45...
Now Ive not done this before however I'm pretty good working with my hands. I dont have any "StewMac" tools / Files and below are the links that got me thinking...

Slotted Unbleached Bone Nut, For Gibson, standard string spread
Item # 6012-VS
1-3/4" x 23/64" x 3/16"
(44.5mm x 9.09mm x 4.80mm)
12" (304.80mm) top radius
1-13/32" (35.56mm) string spread

http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and..._Bone_Nut.html

Unbleached Bone Saddles, For Gibson, intonated
Item # 6034-VS

http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and...2.html#reviews

What's your experience?

Go for it, making a nut and saddle is not that difficult, and since you will be making replacement parts, making a mistake does not damage your guitar.
Maybe I lied just a little, making a correctly slotted nut is not easy, get a couple of extra blanks.

Just take your time ... I forget his name but a great guy on here who helped me learn the ins and outs used to always say, "measure twice, cut once."

I found the StewMac files to be pretty useful if you plan to do this more than once. The nut spacer ruler was a bit less helpful as I just found myself using the original nut for spacing guidance. The StewMac ruler was also less helpful for me in terms of determining action. What I found super helpful for measuring action are spacer gauges which you can pick up for a few bucks at any auto parts store.

The sanding is a pain. If you have a dremel model 300-1 and a 3d printer, you can print this dremel stand I made specifically for shaping nuts and saddles ... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:940761

Thank fellas!
The Nut & Saddle I'm getting from StewMac are Shaped/slotted/spaced so I'm left to do the fine detail work... I'm hoping to get by with just a few necessary things like files...

Any Suggestions to help not just keep cost down but to also save from buying things that for this particular job(s) aren't Required?
Like, do I need the "Set" of Nut Files vs a couple that would do the job with a little patience & technique?

Do you have the current nut already off the guitar? If not, before you remove the nut check to see if the finish on the neck extends over the ends of the nut. I don't know if Gibson does that on a J-45, but my Gibson L-150 is like that. If the finish does extend over the ends of the nut and you try to remove the nut without scoring the finish first, you could end up with the finish chipped below the nut ends on the sides of the neck.

Having the tools made by companies like stewmac make it easy for a first timer to get a good job done.

Invest in the tools or pay someone 100 bucks or so to do the saddle and nut for you instead.

Steve

For nut and saddle work, the minimum of tools necessary to do a good job are not much beyond a $10 set of needle files, some sandpaper, a good 6" ruler ($10), a couple of blocks of plywood or particle board and some sort of holding device, such as a vice. A $10 X-Acto saw blade and handle is also very useful.

For doing a lot of this kind of work, one can hundreds of dollars on specialized tools that speed up the process, improve consistency, or make it easier.

If you are going to buy pre-cut nuts, decide what spacing you want to have between strings. One option is to have the distance between strings equal, the other is to have the distance between centers equal. It's personal preference: StewMac's precut nuts - and ruler to space nut slots - are equal distance between strings.

If you want your instrument to be setup as best as it can be, consider any pre-made parts as a partially-finished kit, one that requires fine-tuning when you install it on a particular instrument.

Have you built a nut & saddle before??

Saddles are harder to screw up, but experience builds a far better saddle than a newbie.

Nuts require even more care and precision.

I would say this... Don't build them expecting to have it done well and fully right the first time. It'll take you a lot of nuts and saddles (at least a few) before you get them really good.

Do build them if you want the experience and to learn how to do it. As long as you don't damage your guitar while doing the work, it is all "reversible" - since at any time you or someone else can again replace nut/saddle.

You have to take extra care with Gibson nuts as they are finished in place.

I'm building my first guitar and am getting fairly close to the point of making a nut and saddle. What I did was buy 2 unbleached bone nut blanks from StewMac. I also bought a pack of 5 bone nut blanks off ebay for just a few bucks to learn on. There are a couple of good videos on YouTube that will give you some good guidance too. I bought one of those pre-made nuts and it's nice enough but I would rather learn how to do it for the future. Like you said, it's a fun project on its own and you can say you did it. Who know, it may give you the incentive to build your own guitar some day. It's a challenge but it's not a black art. Well maybe a little.;)