I sent off an order to Stewart-MacDonald for fret wire #150 (their highest and widest), understring radius gauges, fretboard radius standing blocks 4-inch, and a fretting hammer. I also started making my own tools per Dan Erlewine's book, Guitar Player Repair Guide. The first tools I made were 6-inch/3-inch fret leveling files, fret-slot saws, fret-bending pliers, a structure that would hold the bolt-on neck in place and absorb the hammer blows, fret levelers in different lengths (for use with sandpaper), and fingerboard levelers (I bought some roll sandpaper at the local Lowe's).

I decided that for guitar nuts I would like to have a nut file for each string gauge (width). I know all the experts (book authors and store owners) say you only need a few needle files, and that if the string slot needs to be bigger, you just rock the file back and forth as you file; however, I really want to have a nut file of the exact dimension for each string. [Maybe this says something about my lack of skill at this point.] Anyway, I've gotten auto feeler gauges of every 0.001-inch (not metric yet), and I'm filing triangular indentions into each of them so that they'll work for files. I make deeper indentions on the other side so that they can also work as saws. So far I've tried them on graphite, plastic, and bone, and they work fine.