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I'm in the process of inlaying the Japanese Maple (New) fret board inlay from Andy DePaule:

http://www.luthiersupply.com/fretinlayOurpage.html

I've done all the routing and gotten reasonably close. I am ready to glue it in but am not sure of the best approach. Normally, and I will do this for the indiviual leaves, I put dyed black epoxy into the routed pocket and push in the shell. However, in the vine section of this inlay there are some pretty small pieces of "vine" that can wiggle in the pockets when I lay them in dry. Getting them in dry nicely means dropping them in the pocket then gently positioning them with the tip of my X-acto blade. So I worry that if I try to press these little bits into blackened epoxy I won't be able to get them positioned just right and may even lose them in the glue. So what I am considering is to see if I can first lock them in place with CA and then filling in around them with the epoxy. Is this a method that people use? What I am wondering with this approach is how good the epoxy will get in and around the shell to do a good job of holding it in place.

Any advice or tips will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I use a fast set epoxy to get them in position, then regular slow set up epoxy for final fill.It also helps to keep a heat lamp on the epoxy which helps get the air bubbles out while the glue is setting.

I like to use the SM black CA. It has a fairly long working time. If a little does make it up to the top you won't notice it, at least on ebony. Then I do the regular ebony dust and epoxy fill. Some of that new stuff from Andy is really nice looking. Please post some pics when you are done Pat.

Cheers,
Danny

I position, set/glue with thin CA, fill gaps with ebony dust, add more CA to 'lock' it all in. Don't like epoxy for inlay much,

+1 on CA and Ebony dust.

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Pat

I don't do a lot of inlay, but I do as you described. However, I heat with a heat gun before applying the epoxy so the epoxy flows better into the gaps, and heat after to get rid of the bubbles in the epoxy. Just don't get too eager with the heat gun and it works fine.

Peter