Inlaying into maple- how I do it..

[Clavin]

Hi Guys.

I saw your recent threads about inlaying into maple.

I have a bit of experience with this, and I have my own method which works very well for me.

It's pretty easy..

1) Make your inlay pattern. White pearl into raw maple gets washed out, if your staining over it it will look better, but for the most part unless it's used in the context of a bigger pattern then use something with some contrtast.

2) Cut the inlay and glue up your pattern pieces.

3) Take your glued together inlay (or single inlay if it's a single piece) to a copy center and place it FACE DOWN on the copy machine. Make a few copies.

4) Take you photocopies and use them as the routing template. Make sure you photocopy at the exact same size as the pattern!

Attach the pattern to where you want the inlay to go with some 3M spray tack glue. Just cut out the pattern from the paper, spray the back with the adhesive, then place it in position.

Let it dry.

5) Scribe the edge of the inlay image with an exacto knife. Lift out the pattern, and you will be left with the paper pattern border.

Rout to that.

This will give you an exact pattern routing edge. You may need to rout a little over it actually to give ou the extra space you need to make the inlay rest properly, but a very small uniform edge of black glue, etc.. will look natrual if it's clean.

No filler at all should be needed with this method. Just keep a steady hand and take your time. I have spent multiple days routing some inlays.

Here is a maple example- the manta ray on my living sea guitar, and the corals around the pick-up rings.

Both were routed with this method.

I hope this helps.

Craig

[Ace]

need I say more?

so long

ace

[DannoG]

I think I speak for all of us when I say:

Please show us more (inlay and guitars).

[want2design]

Yes, please!

I am very interested in this!

[DividedByJames]

I agree...your artwork is spectacular. Can we get pictures of the rest of the guitar...and do you have more inlays to show us?

[JohnnyG]

those inlays look amazing. the manta ray is so ridiculouslly cool.

[LGM Guitars]

Craig,

I use another method which works equally as well.

once you have your shell glued together, put it in a flatbed scanner, then I redraw the outline with Autocad after importing the inlay image into my cad program. I prefer this method simply because I've found some copiers tend to distort a little bit, also, with the CAD system, I can then enlarge my CAD drawing a touch (like .005") so that I route to the inside of the black line, then there is no guessing as to where the line should be

By the way, I was talking with Andy Depaul about your work a fair bit, I am very impressed, here is a couple pics of my first marine life inlay Got a bit more clean up to do and then fretting, plus a mermaid inlay on the headstock. What I want to know is, how are you taking your pictures and getting the shell to look so true to form, I haven't gotten a picture yet that shows the shell off like I want it to.

[Clavin]

Thanks LGM..

I met Andy at ASIA this past summer.

Nice guy and great materials.

As far as photos go two methods work well for me.

Actually placing the finished work on an color photographic photocopy machine

or my other trick- digital camera, on macro mode- NO flash.

Take the photo in good light and you should be O.K.

No sunlight- flourescent is best.

I really like your dolphins! Great piece!

I am going to do another themed guitar with sealife soon after I get a little break from my new son (may take a while!)

Until then I have a piece in the works that will hopefully make my other works look pale by comparison.

Pics soon hopefully.

Thanks again! I love your work

Craig

[daveq]

I've also talked with Andy and he is a really great guy.

As for the methods, I still would warn anyone who does not have experience doing inlay to avoid maple. I never really thought the issue was finding the outline (at least not for me) - but actually controlling the routing to be exact enough to not draw attention to errors. Maybe it's because I picked a fairly difficult pattern for my first inlay but I just don't think a beginner would be able to pull it off with maple without making some mistakes.

I'm not trying to discard what you guys have shared with us in terms of technique - I just have some concerns telling someone that they can expect good results inlaying into maple without putting in some time getting used to the process.

I am probably biased due to my first inlay being pretty difficult (very small pieces - not many simple shapes,...). The ebony saved me in several places. Especially when one of my pieces of shell broke after I routed wood out for it. There was no way I was going to duplicate it exactly but thanks to the ebony, I could still get away with cutting another piece the same size. I think with maple, you would need to make it slightly bigger in that case?

Anyway, please don't think that I think I know more about inlay than you guys - my only point is that I think image transfer techinique is only a part of the problem - actual routing skill is another ball game.

Dave

[Hotrock]

After taking on board all that has been said here, I'm gonna do it anyway.

Dave - I agree with you, but hell, since when did I listen to anyone.

Craig - , will you be my dad?

[LGM Guitars]

Dave,

In all honesty, I find maple to be the easiest to route, mostly because of the visual aspect. It doesn't grab the router bit and want to pull you off your line as easily as rosewood, doesn't make such a fine powder as ebony. The only downside is you have to be more accurate than dark woods, but I actually prefer inlaying into maple because I think it's easier. In fact, when learning to route for inlays, I would recommend practicing on a piece of maple because it shows you where you make your biggest mistakes. I had a hard time routing along a straight line for a while, I practiced in maple to see best where it was that the grain was catching me, what I was doing wrong, it was a great learning tool.

Having said that, I would agree in that your first couple guitar inlays should be on darker woods simply because you can hide it a little easier. But, the real trick in inlay, is to need as little filler as possible I do think a little bit should squeeze up the edge to hold the piece a little tighter, but you don't want to be seeing a bit ugly edge