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I ordered a bunch of stuff from the U.S. for a trial run of 4 mandolins that I'm going to have built down here and then export to the U.S.. I'm also working on doing the same things with guitars, and with the confusion of multiple orders from multiple places I realized yesterday I didn't buy any pearl dots for my mandolins. I've got abalone for the guitars, but they're much too big for a mandolin fingerboard.

So the idea came to me - why not cut dots from leftover quilted maple? The luthier I'm working with down here only likes to use wood binding, so there will already be a "different" aspect to these mandos...and I figured why not take the all wood thing a step further.

Anybody tried this or seen it done? I'm thinking that I'd need to cut a piece of maple as thin as possible, finish it, then use a forstner bit or something like that to punch out the dots. Am I missing an obvious problem? Would it not actually be necessary to have the dots be finished?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to place a duplicate post on the mandolin cafe so my apologies if there's a crossover crowd that will find this discussion redundant!

Andy Wright
Managua, Nicaragua

It is a bit tough to keep punches sharp enough but yes I have done this. My punch set is intended for sheet metal.

In fact I have done it with maple, Rosewood, mahogany and Koa. I even cut one of my Japanese Maple leaf vines out of Maple for the stem and Mahogany for the leafs. I have not put it on a fretboard yet but will one day.

Usually marker dots ( I assume you're talking about the ones on the surface
of the fretboard, not the side markers) are installed a little proud of the
board and then leveled to match the board radius, etc. You'd lose the pre-
finish with this step. You could go with unfinished dots , but the Maple will
get dirty pretty quickly and the flame won't show much with out finish.
There are lots of little (MOP etc) dots available through LMI, etc.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

I think its a cool idea. why not? you/we use dot markers and fret board markers made of all sorts of "other" materials. What's wrong with beautiful wood? Especially something hard that will wear well. Although a maple fretboard marker may get pretty dirty if not sealed somehow... ah that's a problem...maybe? Maybe if you countersink them and then cover some clear epoxy to level and protect?

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

[QUOTE=Chas Freeborn] Usually marker dots ( I assume you're talking about the ones on the surface
of the fretboard, not the side markers) are installed a little proud of the
board and then leveled to match the board radius, etc. You'd lose the pre-
finish with this step. You could go with unfinished dots , but the Maple will
get dirty pretty quickly and the flame won't show much with out finish.
There are lots of little (MOP etc) dots available through LMI, etc.
-C[/QUOTE]

Your right about the flame not showing. If you seal the maple with thin CA after radiusing your fretboard I dont think you will have problems, I don't thin my material less than .08 so that my thinest is .06 after radius. Large inlay can be an isse on wear. I flood with CA prior to inlay to haarden maple and mahogany.

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably try it on the first one (which will be mine) and see how it turns out. Then down the road I can either use no markers or get some pearl ordered once I know how much the customs duties will be when they arrive (don't want to end up spending a ridiculous amount of money for a fairly non-essential component when my goal is to keep these as cheap as possible within reason).

Thanks,
Andy

You could also try cutting the guitar dots into quarters, no rule that they have to be round.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

I made my own abalone dots by gluing small pieces of abalone onto the shank end of a brad point drill bit with some CA. Put the drill bit in a drill press upside down. Used a squared off sanding block with 120 grit on one edge to sand the abalone to the same diameter as the drill - on a low speed. Soaked the end of the drill bit in acetone for a few minutes, and popped the abalone off with a thumb nail. Then used the same drill bit to drill the hole to inlay the abalone into - perfect fit every time, any size you want, out of any material you have to hand.

Hey, Paul...Brilliant! I don't have any need for that technique right now, but it's one of those creative solutions that's so simply elegant that it will stick in my brain for use when I do need it. Thanks!