resin for inlays?

axisus

I was looking at some rather nice but very delicate inlays on a guitar fretboard. I wouldn't consider it that practical to make something similar but then I wondered if you could just cut the fine work into the fretboard and then 'pipe' it with some resin rather than insert an inlay. Is there any reason why that sort of thing wouldn't work? Anyone tried anything similar?

Gagaryn

I went down the youtube wormhole last night and strangely ended up watching people using resin for avariety of uses including inlay's and stabilising dodgy wood. I am therefore now an expert and can confirm it would work. The potential issues with resin seem to be when using it in larger chuncks (tool handles for example) when it it can set with bubbles inside. Youtube people were using a vacuum to avoid that. With inlays bubbles are less likely to be a problem and it seems that heat removes any surface bubbles. Caveat - Although I am now an expert, I have never tried it.

WezV

The main issue is getting a good colour, especially if it's on rosewood.  There are ways around it, but you need to test the mix on the wood you will use.  Worse case is you have to paint the cavity white first.

Generally cutting an accurate route is more difficult than cutting the shape in shell/plastic/recon stone etc....

axisus

WezV said:

Generally cutting an accurate route is more difficult than cutting the shape in shell/plastic/recon stone etc....

I have to admit that I found it the other way around when I did my Chinese symbol inlays, and it's a whole big step less to not cut out pieces first!

Sporky

I've done some resin inlays but only as tests so far. You can make the resin opaque or pearlescent but you have to be very, very careful about proportions or it won't cure, or won't cure hard enough. or the shrinkage is unmanageable.

axisus

Sporky said:

I've done some resin inlays but only as tests so far. You can make the resin opaque or pearlescent but you have to be very, very careful about proportions or it won't cure, or won't cure hard enough. or the shrinkage is unmanageable.

Interesting. Thanks.

Sporky

I found some pictures.

First I machined pockets into a fretboard blank using a small (3mm?) ball-end cutter and filled them with casting resin with some mica flakes in it for pearlescence:

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/oct-12/P1020999.jpg

Then machined the fretboard radius:

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/oct-12/P1030009.jpg

Then the fret slots:

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/oct-12/P1030012.jpg

Then the perimeter:

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/oct-12/P1030013.jpg

And it looks like this on a neck (I was also trying out doing the rolled fretboard edges with the CNC machine, less successfully):

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/oct-12/P1030032.jpg

axisus

@Sporky Yes, that's the sort of thing I am thinking of. Nice work!

CNC machine - amazing kit to have.

Sporky

It does open up some interesting approaches.

You don't see all the hilarious mistakes I make though.

I'll have a look for the resin I used - went through a few to find a good/easy one.