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I'm going to be starting on the fretboard pictured below. The fretboard I'm using is figure rosewood, not black ebony. Any amount of over cut will be visible.
I'm not real happy with the way I transfer the pattern to the fretboard and I'm wondering what you guys do.
I stick the inlay on with some water-based white paint, allow it to dry, and then make the outline will a needle or a new #11 Exacto knife.
Often the paint is too thick and caused my scribe line to be too large or the scribe lines aren't that visible.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

If you have the luxury of having the inlay in a printable form (which is an exact size), you can print it out and then use some glue to stick it on the fretboard. then just cut out the stuck on pattern. Any paper remaining after the inaly hole is cut out can be sanded off easily.

I have had great luck using this method, but youre in trouble if the stuck on pattern slips for any reason.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Hi Steve,

I glue the inlay on with airplane glue then trace with an Exacto knife. Once traced I remove the inlay, remove remaining glue and dust with Tempera paint power.

The power highlights the trace lines as seen in the photos below. I didn't have one with the inlay traced.

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

Or you could photo copy the inlay patterns. Cut around the individual photo copies pieces and glue them to the fretboard.

For a super tight fit I would print the pattern slightly reduced in size, say
95% or so. You will have to experiment a bit but the idea is to make the
outside edge of the printed pattern line up with the edge of the cut pearl.

Do you cut to the left of the line? To the right? Or split it down the middle?

No matter how careful you are there will be some gaps, try some
experiments with CA and various wood dusts to find the best match.

Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

Hi Steve:

I do the same thing Michael does except that I rub a peice of chalk over the scribed lines. It produces the same effect though. Then, route until the chalk line just disappears and you're done.

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Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

Steve:

Where did you get those inlays? They're really nice!

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Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

I also use model airplane glue to stick the pieces to the wood. I use an exacto-knife with a fresh blade to score around each piece. A drop of acetone softens the glue enough so you can pop the piece off with your finger. Rub chalk on the scribed line so you can see them.

The key for me is a good light source when I route the cavity. A magnifier seems to help as well.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

Same as Don and Wayne but I have sharpened a small jewelers screwdriver into a slow tapering fine needle point and I use that to scribe around the glued shell and then rub chalk on the scribe line to define once the shell has been freed with acetone.

Cheers

Kim

[QUOTE=sharp_custom] Steve:

Where did you get those inlays? They're really nice! [/QUOTE] I got them here..

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Thank you all for the tips. I think I'll go for gluing a photocopy down and routing to that.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve,

I have had the best luck using printed patterns.  When I cut and dress the pearl, I assure that it is perfect to the pattern, so the pattern works as a solid outline.  With my limited experience and tools, I have found that chalk lines can be harder to see than a printed and glued-on pattern - but a pattern is dependent on how well the pearl fits the pattern...

Awesome

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

[QUOTE=SteveS] [QUOTE=sharp_custom] Steve:

Where did you get those inlays? They're really nice! [/QUOTE] I got them here..[/QUOTE]

Are they a special order? I didn't see them on the website. I could hav emissed them though.

Thanks, Don

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Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

I've only done one guitar with a lot of inlay (cut the inlays from shell, etc... decided it was not my thing) but I found that the 'scribing' around the glued-on inlay worked best if it was quite deep- several trips with a very sharp blade (scalpel/x-acto or violin knife).
If you have a good deep scribe, last bit of wood will just 'pop out' when you get close with the Dremel.

Of course, I wasn't brave enough to inlay into rosewood- ebony is very kind and allows hiding mistakes quite well!

John

Hey Don, I too checked the web page for them. I found them under the individual pieces catagory, several pages down. (there are about 30 "pages" of the different pieces.

I use a different approach.
I use a silver metallic pencil. 1st I sharpen it, then I "shave" half the width of the lead away with a single edge blade.
I use either finger tips or the ends of needle files to hold the cut shell in place, and then trace.
The silver pencil works great on darker woods.
Obviously if you don't have a steady hand, glue may be your best choice.
On really delicate pieces, such as small signatures, I sometimes use kid's glue stick to attach a pattern to the wood and route through it.
Once you make a single pass, you can remove the remains of the paper, place the shell on the route and mark reference points to cut to fit.

Good luck!

Paul

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

Paul, where does one obtain this "silver metallic pencil"?

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger