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I'd love to find some precut dots but cannot seem to find them online. Has anyone done brass dots before? Looks like I can buy some brass rod at my local hardware store but how would you go about cutting it? Seems to me like it would want to deform and would be difficult to use a hack saw to cut tiny dots out.

I just checked, the dot driller from Elevate doesn't do metal, but you might ping Chris to double check about brass.

It doesn't solve your problem, but if you aren't totally set on solid brass I like to use metal spacer beads from ebay and then find the corresponding plastic dot rod that fits in the inside hole of the bead to make a halo dot. I get the plastic a little oversized and persuade it in for a tight fit.

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I drill deeper holes, like about 1/4" into the side of the fretboard. Glue in a short length of rod. Once dry, cut it off with nippers or a jewelers saw then file it flush. Easy peasy.

Clinet wants brass so that's what it is...

Barry, THAT is a good idea, thank you. Do you simply use thin CA?

Medium CA works fine.

Yep, what Barry said. I have used hobby shop rods and tubes. I have done aluminum tube with the appropriate brass rod inside and various other combinations. Just drill in deep enough that it is supported then nip off far enough away from the edge that you don't have crimped edges by the time you file down. I had the most trouble with that the times I have tried to use tube filled with sawdust and glue to give the illusion of a metal circle inlayed into the FB. For some reason, I get more crimping than I expect to. I started sawing those off close to flush with a little exacto hobby saw instead of using the nippers (which are faster and more convenient).

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I have use copper wire looks pretty good ca finishes them well

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
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You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Copper wire! I'm kicing myself for not having thought of this. It is readily available and a new metallic color alternative to aluminum and brass. Now that you say it, it seems so obvious.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I've done brass rods, as well as brass and aluminum tubing with colored epoxy in the center. I'd use red epoxy to match the red veneer under the fingerboard, etc. Always looked pretty cool.

Dave

I did a tutorial on this in the tutorial section about five years ago using copper rod and black side dot material to fill.

Most recently I simply filled with medium black CA.

I trim them with a cutoff wheel in the dremel. I'd love to nip them flush, but I'm paranoid about pinching them and ruining the whole thing.

I saw mine thin with a jewelers saw before inlaying and then level it to the side of the board with a file/sandpaper. I'm paranoid too. I use the colored epoxy to inlay the tube--it's still a tube when I put it in the fingerboard. It's a tight fit, so the epoxy only shows up in the center.

Dave

Oh! Man that does sound like it would be nice. I may have to run this by my buyer. I've got several gauges of the stuff too.

When you are getting the wire/rod/tube close to the edge of the fretboard, don't switch to sandpaper too soon. File it as flush as you can and use sandpaper only to remove the file marks. I've made a number of knife scales using hobby shop rods and found out the hard way that a sanding pad isn't nearly firm enough to not deform over the hard metal and leave it a bit proud.

BTW, love the filled tube look. Really sharp with the red veneer!

Dave, I keep coming back to look at that red veneer under the fingerboard because it looks SO GOOD. Are you using dyed maple or holly, or something like redheart or paduak? Are you using it the wide of the neck, or is it inlaid like purfling?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I used brass rod for side dots back in the 80's. In time the lacquer blistered off the dots and then many of them corroded to a green color. I stopped using brass and went back to pearl.-Bob

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That was definitely a concern of mine as well, particularly since I prefer the red of copper. I dipped one in lacquer and literally left it outside for close to two years to see if there'd be discoloration. Thankfully there wasn't.

Thanks! That was the red dyed maple that Constantines sold (and might still sell). I got a bunch of it back in the nineties and still have a bunch left today. I used it for fingerboard veneers, backstraps, etc. It was full width of the neck--just like on a backstrap.

My banjo necks were all french polished, and I never had the problems others have reported with the finish letting go around the brass. Might be a nitro issue there, I don't know.

Dave

Ah, thanks. I haven't ordered from Constantines since the 90's. Guess I better check out their website!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

https://www.constantines.com/dyedveneer.aspx

Dave

Wouldn't copper also turn green if exposed to air long enough?