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Should I inlay before radiusing or after? I will be using block inlay of white and gold mop that is .060 thick in a 12" radius fingerboard. I am especially concerned about the gold mop which seems to degrade if sanded down to much.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Rich: I generally only use dots for position markers and install after radiusing. This is a help in saving the depth of pearl,on block inlays you will lose the amount of the radius. Still I think you would be best off by inlaying later. Maybe a bit of math to make sure you have enough depth of pearl.....???
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

No matter which way you do it you'll have to sand to match the radius.
Do what ever is easiest for your working style.
Mike

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Mike Collins

I've been pondering on this too. I think inlaying before radiusing makes more sense, so you can get the bottom of the pocket more flat. But I may rough radius with a plane before actually gluing the shell pieces into the pockets.

Routing after radiusing makes more sense if you have multiple small pieces of shell, so the pieces off to the sides can be angled so you don't sand as deep into them. But you'll either end up with some glue filling gaps between the shell piece and the curved bottom of the pocket, or you could try to keep the pocket bottom flat but still at an angle. Tangent to the fingerboard surface at the center of the shell piece, would be ideal.

I radius after inlaying blocks (same numbers you mention.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

I like to radius then inlay .That way I will have a better feel for what pearl fits the depth of cut needed for the radius. If one things comes out of this discussion is that it doesn't matter it all works .

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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

I inlay before radius. I just make sure my pearl is 1/16" thick and never have had a problem sanding through it that way. Following a radiused surface to inlay into will leave a curved pocket floor and that won't allow the pearl to seat properly and increses the cance for the inlay to fail in the future.

As was mentioned you are going to need to sand it off anyway. That being the case I always do the inlay on a nice flat board, it's easiest for me with the tools I have for the job. Just make sure that the inlay is perfectly flush that way you remove the least amount of material.

I've only done dots in the past and I scraped them flush. With block inlay I don't think that will work so well. I don't want to take the wood down faster than the shell. Would running the fingerboard through a drum sander with a jig take the shell down evenly with the wood? Thanks guys for all the input.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I tilt the CNC fixture (vacumn) a few degrees right and left when cutting the cavities prior to radiusing.
It's made as a trunnion with the pivot axis in line with the fretboard surface.
I suppose this could be done when cutting the cavities manually also.
Perhaps a fixture consisting of a clear lexan surface for the router base to ride on?
This angled fixture could be switched end for end for doing the bass side and treble side.
Nelson