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With the guitar drying away, I thought I'd venture down the inlay road. My thought was to put a modified vine or tree that you see on some guitar necks. With the holidays around the corner, I thought I could put in a few requests but don't really know what I would need. There is a woodcraft near by so the tools can be bought there easily or over the internet if need be.

What should I put on the list? I have a scroll saw but very light on the chisel/carving tool department (i assume those are the main tools).

Thanks!

Turbo, you don't want to use a powered scroll saw (if this is what you have) for cutting pearl. It will grab the material on the upstroke and slam it down on the deck in the down stroke and that would be that.

You want to use a jewlers saw like the one pictured in Hesh's post. Cutting on the down stroke so the piece is supported by the cutting board.

The next best thing (or maybe first) is also a stollen picture from Stew-Mac, either or both would be good.

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Go with what Hesh shows above. I didn't buy the kit, but it is nearly identical to what I use. That outfit will work fine. You will need the dremel with several bits for the inlay pocket. I use 1/8 (hogging), 3/32, 1/16, and 1/32 bits.

The scroll saw will work great for wood inlay pieces. Lee Valley makes a great magnetic hood that connects to your shop vac. and will stick well to anything metal for dust control.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Chris is right -- MOP dust is pretty nasty. Here's a picture of the bird's beak I made out of a piece of red oak. The bird's beak has a dust hood that is connected to a hose that I run to my dust collector.

Good lighting is important as well -- I use two drafting lamps with 100 watt light bulbs.

Get John Hall's pneumatic grinder for inlay. Leaves a Dremel (or Dremel type
tool) in the dust. Once you use it you'll always wonder why you used a
Dremel for this job!

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http://www.wellsguitars.com

Thanks for all the great info. I guess I'm suprised that you use routers with fine tips instead of chisels and carving tools. I would have thought that was a more accurate method but with those tiny bits maybe routing is more efficent. Do you have a link for the pneumatic grinder?