LWiedenman

I have heard that using the tape method on metals works. I would think that it would work with shell too. The concept is that as long as the surface is not reflective to begin with it will etch the shell and scatter the beam after it starts cutting, but having been discouraged by the manufacturer neither of us really wanted to gamble with 40,000 bucks (which isn't an expensive laser)

"Re-slotting isn't too bad unless you have to do a large portion of the fretboard. Some people take the extra step of removing a bit of the inlay where it meets the slot to prevent it from cracking when pressing the fret wire in - others just remove the tang and glue the fret wire on - and I guess some people just leave it as is and press them in. I'm no inlay expert but I wanted to throw that out there as a possible consideration" Right. I've never had a problem with cracking the inlay while putting the frets in. For me this is the real concern: At some point those frets are going to come out to be redone. If the tangs on the frets dig into the inlay, the inlay will break and come out with the frets - a nightmare. So, it's always a good idea to keep the inlay 1/2mm or so away from the edge of the fret slot, just be sure that it still lies underneath the crown of the wire. As for myself. I prefer having the frets marked with a line, then doing the inlay, then having the slots cut. Otherwise you have to clean the glue out, which seems to be no big deal either, but then I'm not a luthier. If you would rather cut the slots first so you know exactly where they are. Let the glue set up for your inlay for 5-10 seconds (pressure activates CA glue) then blow the excess glue out of the slot with compressed air. You'll have less mess to clean up inside of the slot. But make sure to mask off the sides of the neck or fingerboard.

Yes, from everything I know it's UV that causes fading problems. Over time you will still get some fading problems, but that will multiply the life of the color nearly 100 times.

This is how I avoid cutting mistakes: Glue all of the dots down with a spot of Elmers or CA glue. Stare at it Find the pieces that are off, pull them up by heating up the piece with an iron (for elmers) or pop them off with a razor blade. Scrape the old glue off the bottom. Glue it back down with a spot again. Stare at it more Repeat these steps as necessary. Once you're confident everything is in it's right place, scribe around it, and cut the hole by hand. This is however, far more time consuming than using a drill bit and putting the hole in the right place to begin with. But makes it nearly impossible to make a blaring mistake.

Do you have to paint it or can you use a stain? If you can get by with stain or ink on the headstock it would be pretty easy. Shell won't take most stains, it may darken it a little bit, which you could either leave, or go back with a fine sandpaper over the inlay to remove the darkened surface. If the shell does absorb anything it will be very shallow, and the wood will absorb it a lot. Hit it with 800, 1000, 1500, then 2000 grit wet or dry paper, the wood will be pitch black and the inlay will gleam. Don't redo it, it's worth more if you keep it as original as possible.

you might be surprised at what is possible with the human hand, given that the person doing the inlay is enough of a perfectionist. Lettering is one of the hardest things, at least for me, to get perfect results with. I believe there are a few companies that do this. DePaule Supply has either a laser or cnc, i'm not sure which. And i think Custom Inlay Inc. would do this for you as well, i know they have standard fonts, but for an extra charge will do others. I have a friend that has a laser, we did some experiments with it and cutting inlay. At least with his particular laser there was a problem with burning the edges of the piece. The other problem is that a laser cannot cut a reflective surface, because it will reflect the laser back into itself and destroy the machine. Before we tried shell we called the manufacturer and they advised against it. I think it's for this reason that most production inlay companies don't use lasers, but cnc mills instead. Shell can also be cut with a watersaw. Unfortunately, all of these options will likely be cost prohibitive unless you do a run. If that's the case, look around for custom inlay. Look at the close up photos to see how perfect their detail work is. If they don't show closeups, it means the work isn't good enough to show a closeup.