transfering an inlay pattern

[Bluemando]

I am practicing my skills at inlaying. I am using hard maple scraps and trying to inlay them with a formica like material. The trouble that I have is that I cant seem to get a good transfer of the pattern on the wood. What method do you pro's use. I have been just laying the piece to be inlayed on top af the wood and tracing around it, and it doesnt seem very accurate.

[ZZCHOP]

Bluemando:I'm not exactly a pro,but this method works for me;After i cut out my inlay i smear some white water color paint over the spot i plan to inlay.And then lay the inlay over the painted spot.Then i use a sharp scribe(a large sewing needle works good too)and trace around the inlay leaving it's impression on the painted spot.
#It also helps to glue your inlay material to a thin piece of veneer before cutting it out,with water soluable glue,and once the inlay is cut to the shape you want simple soak the piece in water,and alas,the perfect inlay! (If this description sounds a bunch like Mr.Siminoff explains it;it is purely intentional)
Caution:This method can cause uncontrolable cursing,and severe clogging of the tearduct)
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Jim http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Bluemando]

Thanx Jim, for the info. When you cut the wood to recieve the inlay do you do it free hand? I have been trying to do it with
a dremel and a router base, but Ive got the cheap one and should probably upgrade.

[ZZCHOP]

Bluemando:I bought a newer dremel/router base and it still wasnt any easier for me.I recently made my own clear base from sheet acrylic and that helped a bunch.I think stew-mac or one of those places sells them pre made.
Good bits make an even bigger differance!Grizzly tool has some nice ones listed on thier miniature tooling page of thier last catalogue.Seems like they are only about 8or9 dollars. Best,
Jim

[Chris Baird]

If you are doing elaborate multi-part inlays it helps to glue each piece down with rubber cement. Once the whole thing is in place and the glue is dry then scribe it out. For some of the more porous woods I won't use watercolor paint because it gets stuck in the pores. I just scribe right into the bare wood. I've got those micro-spiral downcut router bits that stewmac sells in the 1/32 & 3/32 size. They work well.

[crawdad]

If you can talk your dentist into giving you some used dental burrs, those work great in the Dremel. Since the health issues prevent them from using the bits more than once, they will be like new. Just disinfect them, of course!

[sunburst]

The scribing method is the tried and true. The missing element is practice.
One thing that helps me when routing to a scribed line is to use an end mill that is NOT a downcut. A bur will form as you rout, but will magically dissapear right when you get to your scribed line.
A method I use frequently to transfer designs to the wood is:
Make a copy of your inlay with a coppier, superglue it to the wood, rout it out right through the paper with a downcut spiral end mill.
I have a whole bunch of dental burs, but I like the solid carbide spiral endmills much better.

[edit]
I just remembered. I often design inlays using tracing paper. A copy of the design on tracing paper can be superglued to the wood ond routed out.

[Flowerpot]

Sunburst, using the tracing paper is OK if you are very precise cutting out the pearl, and the pearl is exactly what you drew. That may not hold true for somebody less experienced. The advantage of scribing around the actual inlay material (or a photo-copy of the actual material) is that you route for what you cut out, not what you hoped to cut.

[PickinFool]

In my former life, I built banjos. Some of these banjo inlays are quite detailed, and doing a hearts and flowers or RB4 pattern is a great deal of work. What I do is lightly glue(white) the inlays where you want them on the fretboard or peghead. Take a scribe, or a large, straight sewing needle (I actually used a straight sailmakers needle), and etch the outline of each inlay piece. Next, remove the inlays using a single edge razor blade. Be sure to keep the inlays "in exactly the same order and place that you had them on the the fretboard/headstock. Finally, take some white chalk and rub it "into" your scribe mark. The chalk dust will get down into the scribe mark, outlining a perfect boundary for you to rout. A good, carbide bit will make your job easier.

[Bluemando]

Thanx for all the input fellas. I think the idea of rubbing chalk into the scribed line is going to help me a lot.
I also was thinking about gluing the abalam to a 3/16 thick piece of balsa wood and cuttin it out on the scroll saw, then sanding the balsa off (balsa since it is soft and easy to sand off). Can you guys see any drawbacks to cutting it this way?

[sunburst]

PickinFool,
I also built banjos in a former life as well as sometimes in this life! In fact I am drawing a custom banjo inlay now.
I once tried an experiment with "hearts-and-flowers" that turned out to work. I lightly stuck the pearl to the board and peghead, painted the whole thing with white spray paint, and popped the pearl off after the paint dried!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Yonkle]

You can also you a paper outline if it id the same as your pattern. Glue the paper to your peghead and scribe around the edges and hogg out the middle with a dremel. See photo JD

[Luthier]

I have found a technical pen with white ink also works well.

Don

[Brian T]

I'm not an inlay expert. But how about using white out? (correction fluid/liquid paper)? It is water soluble and will take pen or pencil marking readily. It would wash or sand off with minimal work. Just a thought. Has anyone tried it?

[sunburst]

I have a friend who paints the wood with white tempera paint and then uses a black technical pen to outline the pearl. It works for him, I haven't tried it.

Some of you might be interested in this:

This was the first time I had tried this. I borrowed a digital camera, wandered around taking pictures of ferns off and on for several days, put the photos in Photoshop in my computer and "digitally" designed the inlay.
I composed a composit fern picture made from parts of various photos, blew it up really big and traced around it with my computer mouse so that I had just the outline and the lines to be ingraved. I printed several coppies of the image and superglued the parts of the design to pieces of pearl and cut them out with a jewelers saw.
I superglued a copy of the design to the peghead and routed right through the paper with a solid carbide, down-cut spiral end mill. (actually a couple of sizes of end mill)
The inlays are glued in with black superglue (from Stew Mac) and then sanded down and ingraved.

The signature was done the same way only not from a photo. I drew the logo, scaned it, printed it, glued a copy to the pearl and cut it out, glued a copy to the peghead and routed.

[Luthier]

Very cool!!!! Very very cool!!!

Don

[Bluemando]

beautiful work sunburst.

[Michael Lewis]

Now THAT'S a Fern! Nicely done.

[Yonkle]

Hey Sunburst....Nice work, thats how I am doing mine right now. Question: Did you only use the (Black Glue) from Stewmac, or did you mix the black glue with some ebony powder? I always have put in the black glue then pushed ebony powder from my shavings back in. Just wondering if the glue itself does the job. JD

[sunburst]

Yonkle, just the black glue.
There is a black superglue made by Loctite that I like better, but it is so much more expensive than the Stew Mac glue that I decided the Stew Mac was fine.
I use plenty of the stuff to the point of apparent waste. That's because I never can use all the glue before it hardens in the bottle anyway, so I might as well make sure to use plenty.

Thanks, folks, for the complements on the inlay. I'm thinking of a realistic flowerpot, but it's hard to work on a drawing from 20 feet away http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Yonkle]

Got her done, Sunburst. What you think? My first Fern.

[sunburst]

Congrats Yonkle! Looks good! That must be Paua, it's so green. Where did you get it?
It's fun to look at something like that when it's finished isn't it?http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif