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Hi all,

I'm not used to put pearl inlays on my fretboards, I usually use wood. Now I have a customer who wants some, and I'm wondering about something. I use a router radiusing jig for my fretboards and I'm not sure the pearl inlays will like being shaved with a router bit.

Does anybody using this type of radisuing jig have some experience with inlayed fretboards?

Thanks!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Yeah, I went through this exercise. Customer wanted block MOP inlays on ebony board. I use a router sled to radius the fretboard. The intial test with a straight router bit showed quite a bit of "shredding" to the surface of the MOP which required excessive sanding to remove. Eventually, I found a negative rake planer bit from CMT that left a fairly smooth surface on the MOP. I will try to find a link.

I've wondered about this too. Do you use a compound radius? If not, I wonder if it might be easier to radius the fretboard first, then inlay the MOP and then sand it flush, being careful not to distort the radius.

Went down that road once. Didn't like it. Some inlays cracked and had to be replaced. Now I cut the inlay pockets while the board is flat, then radius with my router jig and set the inlays in after that. I use a scraper to bring the pearl down to level and then sand as normal. Only thing I need to be careful of is not causing chip out around the pockets when radiusing.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I pocket and inlay while flat, then sand the whole thing to radius. Probably the safest way re chips/tearout etc., although with the right bit & speeds, I expect you could route it.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Ok, thanks for your input guys.

I'll go with inlaying on an already radiused fretboard and managing to level the shell afterward.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Exactly (although I use a sanding block rather than router jig). Scraper makes pretty short work of leveling shell, although you do have to resharpen frequently. Also makes nice little piles of dust, rather than fluffing it all over the place like sandpaper does.

Yup, radius first then inlay and sand flush.

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In my experience you have two options to cut cleanly through shell and wood at the same time: the very slow way (small cutters, very high RPMs) and the very expensive way (custom tooling). Grinding it (sanding) is much easier; that's how Taylor does it with their big in-CNC concave sanding wheels. I had some custom tooling made with big carbide knives moving very quickly, but it took a very big order of heavily inlaid boards to recoup the investment.

You can reliably route through ablam if you use sharp cutters, small passes, and very consistent feeds. Solid shell is more difficult again, but can be done. I wouldn't want to do either manually, though, as the feeds have to be slow and consistent and the passes are quite small. I'd go for one of the belt-sander based radiusing jigs if I were manually radiusing inlaid boards.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

here is a vid to help. I do this for or a regular basis and teach inlay , the best way is prep the board to the point of fretting. Then inlay the pearl just before . You want the surface of the pearl just a touch proud of the plane of the fretboard and sand down , 220 then 320 followed by 0000 steel wool
I am sure the vids will help you a lot.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... bluescreek

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks for the info guys.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

If it's just dots it's no big deal to sand them down with a radius sanding block. You could also set the dots a tad low and glue and cover with CA and sand the CA . Either way dots are easy enough to sand.