First time Headstock Inlay question

[Albert D]

I bought precut letters for my headstock and have been practicing with my router on a piece of mahogany. I bought three thinking I would use one to learn with and a spare. I inlayed one into the mahogany and glued it with super glue then filled the voids with mahogany dust and hit it with some thin super glue. The glue and dust turned very dark compared to the wood. What did I do wrong?http://s347.photobucket.com/user/ald...tml?sort=3&o=0

[John Arnold]

The only thing you did wrong was expecting the wood dust not to darken when wetted. It happens to everyone. That issue is one reason inlays are often done in dark woods like rosewood or ebony. You also get better contrast with pearl inlays.
A better color matching filler can be achieved with wood dust from a lighter wood, or from a pigment. For color matched wood filling I like to use pastel chalk. It retains its color when wetted.....no matter the medium. I have used it with super glue, shellac, or lacquer.
Scrape the chalk with a knife to produce a powder that is then mixed with the medium.

[Albert D]

The real inlay will be going into rosewood. It's nice and dark. I will also try the pastel chalk. I know my local art store has it. Thank you.

[dekutree64]

Dust+glue always darkens, especially with superglue. That's one of the reasons people often use ebony or rosewood headplates. With light colored woods, the only way to make it look really good is to route it perfectly so there are no gaps in the first place.

Score around the piece with a sharp scribe so you have a line precisely at the edge, rather than offset a bit by half the width of a knife blade. Rubbing chalk in the score line can help make it more visible. When approaching the line, you should always move the router in the same direction around the shape. Either clockwise or counterclockwise, whichever one feels like the bit wants to push away from the wall rather than bite and pull into it.

One thing you could do to make it easier is cut a piece of mahogany and sand/file it to fit precisely inside the hole of the D. Then you only have to route for the outer edge, rather than trying to preserve the inner part at the same time. If possible, cut the piece from the same headplate blank, and keep it oriented the same. Otherwise it might reflect light differently than the outer mahogany and give you away

EDIT: Should have checked for additional posts after I left this window sitting open for a while... this post is mostly irrelevant to the topic at hand now, but hopefully it will be helpful for future inlays and/or other people.

[Shuksan]

A good alternative to super glue and wood dust I learned from a builder who is also a very good inlay artist is to use clear two-part epoxy colored with dye to glue in your inlay. It's possible to get a very close color match that way.

Mohawk dyes work great for this. It's called Blendal Powder Stain and the burnt umber color works great for rosewood. I've also used this color successfully for inlays into ziricote and claro walnut. I've been using Devcon 5 minute two-part clear epoxy. It's the clear version, not the blue one (Ace Hardware).

You mix up a small amount of the epoxy on a piece of paper or whatever suits you and then mix in a small amount of the powder dye. Transfer the epoxy into the inlay recess and press the inlay in so that excess epoxy comes up through and fills any gaps around the edges of the inlay. Let it harden and then level sand.

Even though you can get a good color match this way, you don't want to rely on it as a way to hide a poorly routed recess. If you haven't already done it, I recommend doing a bunch more practice runs on routing out the recess until you get better results than in the photo. That will help produce a better looking inlay. What tool and bit did you use to make the recesses in the photo?

[Albert D]

Originally Posted by Shuksan

A good alternative to super glue and wood dust I learned from a builder who is also a very good inlay artist is to use clear two-part epoxy colored with dye to glue in your inlay. It's possible to get a very close color match that way.

Mohawk dyes work great for this. It's called Blendal Powder Stain and the burnt umber color works great for rosewood. I've also used this color successfully for inlays into ziricote and claro walnut. I've been using Devcon 5 minute two-part clear epoxy. It's the clear version, not the blue one (Ace Hardware).

You mix up a small amount of the epoxy on a piece of paper or whatever suits you and then mix in a small amount of the powder dye. Transfer the epoxy into the inlay recess and press the inlay in so that excess epoxy comes up through and fills any gaps around the edges of the inlay. Let it harden and then level sand.

Even though you can get a good color match this way, you don't want to rely on it as a way to hide a poorly routed recess. If you haven't already done it, I recommend doing a bunch more practice runs on routing out the recess until you get better results than in the photo. That will help produce a better looking inlay. What tool and bit did you use to make the recesses in the photo?

I am using a variable speed Dremal tool on the Stew-Mac router fixture. I have a large selection of micro end mills for my Sherline mill that I use for my ship modeling. At speed they make nice clean cuts in hard enough wood's like boxwood and pear. In softer woods they do make fuzzy cuts. I plan to practice a few more times before I do the real thing. I'm going to wait until I get my hands on some white chalk so I can see the lines better though. I don't want
to mess up a neck that's almost done.

[Shuksan]

A Dremel and the StewMac fixture is what I use too. With good lighting, magnifying glasses, and one of the methods that makes the scribe lines easy to see, it's possible to rout a recess that very closely matches the shape of your inlay with little or no gaps. You just have to be patient and sneak up on the good fit. Good luck with your inlay.

[capohk]

I haven't done this much but the method taught to me was to score around the inlay as tightly as possible and brush chalk dust into the score line. That way, you get a little puff of dust as you get to the line with the router.

Also, if you use a router bit which undercuts the edge a little, it's easy to open out the edge by cutting back the edge with a micro chisel. I got a good fit first time of asking using this method, but I went very slowly. Definitely practice makes perfect.

[Quickstep192]

I have a slightly different slant on the scribing method.

I painted the area to bi inlaid with yellow poster paint. I used yellow because I read it provides better visual contrast than white.

Then, I glued the inlay to the surface with just the tiniest drop of Elmers glue.

I scribed around the inlay using a sharpened dental pick. It produces a fine black line against the yellow background that's easy to follow.

After that, I popped off the inlay by prying underneath with an X-Acto blade. If too much glue was used, some heat from a soldering iron would soften the glue.

In many cases routing to the line produced by this method would produce such a good fit that the piece was hard to get out after a test fit. In order to get the inlay out, I placed a piece of dental floss (glide) over the inlay cavity before test fitting the inlay. Tugging on the floss pulls the inlay out of the routed cavity.

When you sand the inlay flush, the paint gets sanded off with it.