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I am gluing in some dots of reconstituted shell. The holes will be drilled with a brad point drill. Is it necessary to try to use a glue that fills the voids under the dot? I was hoping to jest set them in and wick in thin CA.

What you do will probably work just fine although I usually put med CA in the hole and put the dot in. If ebony I use black CA.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

No need to use a void filling glue for voids beneath the dots; thin CA will work fine.

However, you will want to ensure there are no voids/gaps around the sides of the dots. If your holes are not precise, fill the voids on the side with sawdust from the fretboard and more thin CA. This filler approach works better with darker woods; with maple and the like, the filler will be noticeable darker than the wood.

I don't like voids personally but a brad point bit is perfect for that job. It will leave a nice flat bottom hole that the shell can sit on. Thin CA and you are good to go.

I'm with Steve,

I put med CA in the hole first, then press the dots in, being careful not to seat them under the surface. For me that's easy as I install the dots before radiusing...

I prefer quick epoxy (30 minute). I get them all dry fitted then install all at once. I've always had a confidence issue with CA for this application. Just me I guess.

And I do like Ed but with gel CA.

I am way too allergic to epoxy.

If you want to get your dots flush with the fingerboard and make sure they don’t sink too low in a deep hole, here is a tip. Place the dot on a flat surface and put a tiny drop of CA glue on top. Then lie a matchstick or toothpick across it. When the glue dries this becomes a handle for moving the dot into place and it stops the shell dot from sinking too far into the hole. The matchstick sits flush on the fingerboard. Use the glue of your choice to glue it into the hole (I use CA). After it dries a chisel or sandpaper will easily get rid of the matchstick and your dot is left sitting dead flush

Both brad and Forstner bits leave a center dimple and a deeper cut on the edge of the hole, so we use fine ebony or rosewood dust to level the bottom of the hole and set the depth of the shell for a near-flush fit. I doubt having a tiny cavity under a shell dot matters much, as we routinely live with much larger cavities under/around truss rods or under/around the tang of dry-set fretwork (we always set in hide, but many builders set frets dry or with just a bit of glue).

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Well, that sucks. What do u pore fill with?

I will be using this. Thank you. Its always one of my concerns. In the past, I used fine sawdust to lift the dot when hole was too deep.

That's where the gel CA comes in handy. It has enough body to hold the inlay at the hight you install it.

Well isn’t that a cool idea. Thanks


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Last pore fill was with shellac and saw dust. I have also used stuff out of a can. Epoxy is possibly the most recent thing used for pore fill. Years ago, Brune had an article in GAL in which he said he uses black pore filler on rosewood and red on mahogany. I saw some guitars in his shop hanging that appeared to be slathered with pore filler waiting to dry and be sanded off. I am just guessing it was something out of a can, but I do not know. I have not built anything with the kind of grain that would "pop" with epoxy filler.