PunkRockerLuke Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 (edited) How thick are inlays??? I plan to make wood inlays and I need to know so I can cut the right size and thickness of wood. Edited July 31, 2007 by PunkRockerLuke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick500 Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 It depends on how large the inlays are. Since your fretboard is already radiused, they need to be thick enough so that when they're inlaid and sanded down to the fretboard radius, you don't make the outer edges too thin (or sand through them completely). Are you making dot inlays or something larger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunkRockerLuke Posted July 31, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Rick they are the same size as they are on the paper that you printed the plan on. (I taped it up the best I could) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunkRockerLuke Posted July 31, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Block inlays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick500 Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 You'll have to figure out what the difference in thickness will be between the edges (nearest the edges of the fretboard) and the center of the inlays. (I'll leave it to you to figure out the easiest way to do that. ) Then make sure you make the inlays thick enough so that their final sanded dimension when installed and flush to the radiused board is at least, say, 1/16". Better to err on the side of cutting them a little too thick. Then you can always sand them down. [Edit: Incidentally, it's going to be a little challenging to cut a radiused fretboard for big inlays like blocks, since you'll have to scribe a line straight down onto the board and the blocks, being flat, will not follow the curve of the board. Dots, no problem, just drill.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Most sites like stewmac and others will tell you the thickness of their inlays if you look. Most that I've seen run from thin of .040" to around .060" Being that you mentioned using wood, you could go thicker than that if you wanted. As Rick said block inlays stretch from side to side, so the ends of the inlays will be sanded down this is where the thinner shell can be worn through, so has been cautioned from different people. I just looked at the les paul inlays from stewmac and they are .050. Thats about average I think. You could go thicker to be safe though, since its just wood, shell is a different game. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertbart Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 I would go an 1/8 inch thick with a route depth of .060 inch. As someone already stated you can always sand the excess off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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