Hi all,
I called this the T-rex as its far beefier than the Jaws from S-Mac.
Here is what I made up to press frets with the wonderful Watkins fret cauls. Started out with a Pony bar clamp set made for expanding, not clamping, ie for taking chairs apart and such (from lee valley). I liked this over the typical bessey clamp in the Jaws2 because of the handle - I know that when using my other similar clamps for holding stuff that twisting the round handle would be way tougher over 20 frets than this is. One of my students was the guinea pig for this once completed, and it worked great. Another of my students happens to have a metal lathe, so he turned the press screw down to accept the mating piece of the press. There is a groove milled in the screw, and a lock bolt in the press so it wont fall off in use - I plan to get/make a nylon one but just havent got around to that yet.
The caul holder is simple enough - all aluminum except the rod mount, so its easy to cut and shape - two outer plates hold the whole thing together, then there is the inner plate, slightly thicker than the cauls that the cauls sit up against, and the round stock drilled to fit the press screw, and cut/filed to sit in between the two plates. Bolt is all together, the upper bolt not too tight ot allow it to swivel, and you are there. Just add the wooden neck shaped caul with a rare earth magnet in the bottom to have it stick the the bottom of the clamp. Then start pressing.
For the fretboard extension (if you want to press off the guitar), we pressed in the drill press. The hole in the press mount rod is 1/2 inch - so I just put a 1/2 inch rod piece in there and tighten up the tiny screw, and then it goes into the drill press.
And just for you Josh, there are my cauls sitting in their braz rw and curly maple holder (great idea Mario) !!!
