Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm doing a couple guitars and putting in thumbnail inlays ala Gretsch. Is there a trick to cutting perfectly round circles? The inlays appear to be "pairs". That is, the inlays at frets 1 and 3 are the same size, 5 and 7, and so on. So I can get away with 4 circles (or 4 1/2), each cut in half. I got some nice looking ebony boards, and I want to show them off.

So anyway, I need to cut circles in the 7/8" to 1 1/4" range.

Thanks

_________________
"Real guitars are for old people, Mr. Marsh."

Eric Cartman

Cut them slightly oversize and CA them to the end of a short piece of dowel the size you want to finish at. Put it in the drill press on a low speed and use a hard sanding block to bring it down to size.....when you are flush to the dowel you are done. Soak in acetone to remove. You can glue several dots together and make batches. For the sizes you need your dowel will need an arbor on the end to chuck into the drill.

This is how I do all dot markers on my custom builds.....the client can select the exact pieces of shell he likes.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Great idea, Brian... You are DA MAN.

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

I'm lazy. I would just call Andy DePaule and order these

On a recent fretboard replacement project I just cut the inlays by hand and did final shaping with sanding sticks and files. It wasn't that difficult. My measurements of the original Gretsch's plastic inlays showed that they were each of different radii.

Done. Thanks for the heads up. Brian, your idea is great, and I know I'll use it on other things, but the pre-made ones are about the same price as I'd get blanks for (less if I factor in all of them being different radii), so...


Thanks, fellers!

_________________
"Real guitars are for old people, Mr. Marsh."

Eric Cartman