A jig for routing inlays..

A good while back, I was inspired by a routing jig that @nuance97 (Daniel) showed us. I have a trap inlay job coming up, and I'm damn tired of the tedium of cutting them in by hand. And seeing as this will be done on a Brazilian rosewood fret board from my stock of Braz, I wanted a better way to do it. So I made a jig very similar to Daniel's..



You'll notice some "runner" pieces along each side of the hinged flap, and at the outer ends of the flap. This to keep thd hinged flap from moving or wiggling when the flap is down in position to rout. They were glued in place "brush tight" to the flap sides when down.
I used 3/4" particle board for the construction, and added 1/4" strips of MDF to all pieces above the base board to get the correct jig height for my preferences.

There will be notes coming of setup and use, but I can't do them all tonight. So there will be edits here and there .

Basically, this is a pin-router jig made for a Dremel and Stew-Mac or other standoff routing base. It works with all hard routing templates, I like the ones made by @pshupe. He makes excellent steel routing templates, I have a few of them.


The Idea is to insert a roll pin or dowel directly under the Dremel bit. the template gets moved around on a smooth wood base, having to follow the pin, as you can see. That pic is what it looks like before you mount the board. The router must be absolutely centered over the pin to work accurately.



More pics, method and detail tomorrow..

Sweet! Should make that job much easier

So if I’m understanding this, the pin goes into the wood being routed? Always love to see people making their own tools, jigs, templates, vs. getting ripped off from Stew Mac.

Dilver said:

So if I’m understanding this, the pin goes into the wood being routed? Always love to see people making their own tools, jigs, templates, vs. getting ripped off from Stew Mac.

Click to expand...

This tool is the Stew-mac version, but there are other very similar ones out there.

The pin goes into the steel template cutouts. It is a little bit shorter than the steel template.

The fret board wood is fastened to the template (very precisely placed, more on that later) with double-sided tape.

The bit is exactly the same diameter as the pin, and carefully positioned directly over the pin.

You set the bit depth so when the Dremel is lowered into position, it cuts into the wood about .080 deep, or whatever the thickness of the inlays are. This is accomplished by adjusting the 2 thumbwheels.

Place the template wood-side up on the jig board, template cutout over the pin, one at a time.

Turn the Dremel on, lower it into position. Move the template around, cutting the wood.

The template can only move where the pin allows, which is the shape of the cutout the pin is riding in.

Since the bit is in exact lineup with the pin, it cuts the exact pattern the pin is following underneath.

Turn off the Dremel, raise the lid, move the template to the next cutout, lower the lid, do it again.

Much more to come with important user notes a bit later today..

Alignment is key. I made some tabs to hold the Dremel router base in place, but this alone will move around with the chatter from routing hard wood. I learned that screws through the baseplate itself will secure it. The setup:

Here is the underside of the jig..





The homemade tabs hold it in place for you to get it aligned, but once you get there, it's best to solidify it with those two Phillips head screws you see. There is already two holes in the base you can use for this. But be sure to get the base good and firm with those tabs. You don't want the base moving around on you when you're trying to lock it in place with the screws.

Place your bit in the chuck finger-tight. Lower the jig, and tap the base around until you get this alignment over the pin:


Now you are properly aligned. Flip the jig back up, drill two small holes through the base holes, run your screws in, then lower it and check it again .

Good? If so, raise the jig and push the bit into the chuck until it bottoms, and tighten it good .

Lower it again, and you should have this:



Next, we will get into a few user notes and review how it works .

Okay, some lessons learned.. It should go without saying that one should test out this jig on scrap wood or a board blank you don't care about, until you learn all the particulars .

Here are some vital setup notes.

Firstly, you must establish a true centerline on your board and mark it good. The templates I use have V-notches at each end. I recommend using a fine sharpie to draw a complete centerline from V to V:



Cut the length of your fret board blank so it fits between the V-notches. Then you can simply align the fret board centerline with the template centerline. Apply TWO rows of double-sided tape to discourage any movement or shifting, align your board and tape it down, use your saw jig to cut your fret slots.

Now it gets tricky. We need to pay attention to the next thing.

You may find that the fret slots are no longer perfectly aligned with the template notches. This can be for a couple of reasons, but you need to get it right. It MUST be perfect, or your inlay routs will not be centered between the frets. That's a job-killer. Trust me, you must check for this. Use naphtha / lighter fluid squirted between the board and template, and a putty knife to remove the board. It works almost instantly to soften the adhesive. Clean it all off, and before you re- tape, test out getting the fret slots and template notches perfectly aligned, no offset. I'm saving you a lot of grief here, so trust me. Can you manually align the slots to the notches so the slots are dead-center in the notches, or very close to that? -good.

Here's a pic:



The notches may look offset because of the camera angle, but your eyes with it in front of you can tell. On the 4th notch down from the top, the slot and notch look centered, the rest may not appear centered, but that's just the camera. They are all fairly well-centered to the naked eye. You must have the notches centered with the slots as best you can. Check on both ends of the board and template. Now apply two more rows of tape, align again, and set it down.

We do this to get the small inlays perfect between the frets. You have very little to no room for error, with any method of inlaying these. The centerline alignment keeps the inlays from being crooked, the notch alignment keeps them spaced between the frets properly.

If we are well-aligned, then we are ready to start routing.

My inlays (Philadelphia Luthier) are .080 thick . I am going to want a shallow first-pass of .040. You can gauge this by letting the bit just touch the wood with the jig down in position, then adjust a little more in with the thumb wheels. Make your first pass with everything in place and the jig down in position, then raise the jig and check out the depth. 3 passes is just fine if you want, I did it in two. By no means should you try and get full depth in one pass, especially with very hard wood. The jig and bit will chatter and bounce and distort. You want as little obstruction to the bit as possible. This means multiple passes. Rout all at one depth, then readjust the thumb wheels to go deeper, and do it again. Pic results of that in a little bit..

Okay, the results with using a 1/8" bit and roll-pin:





This is what you can expect with using a 1/8" bit and pin. You can see that some fine corner-cutting by hand with a sharp chisel is still needed. But if I use a 3/32" bit and pin, that need gets reduced to even smaller work. I have ordered a set of 3/32" bits, and a roll pin for that is at the hardware store.

With the 1/8 bit and pin, the whole operation is more stable. If you go after it quickly and a deep, one-pass, it will distort and chatter, leaving your rout too big, rough and unsightly. Moreso for a smaller 3/32" bit and pin. So the key here is shallow and slow, multiple passes. I will post up results when the smaller bits arrive, I'm not going to chisel the corners until I sharpen them up with the 3/32.

Another note on Daniel's jig . I saw that he put a removable disc where the pin goes. That's probably a better idea for this, as it makes pin-changing much easier. As it is, I'm going to have to fill that pin hole with 2/8 dowel and re-drill for a 3/32" pin. I will be posting up final results on a Brazilian rosewood board later on.

That's all for this week on this.

lovely

So you have to chisel the rounded corners, in order to get the sharp edges shape? Is this how they did it in the 50’s? And what adhesive do you use for inlays? Two part epoxy? Duco cement? Just curious. Whatever Gibson is currently using has a faint yellow color, and in my opinion not that good. I had 3 inlays on a new Les Paul standard start lifting out in less than three years. In a guitar that stays in a home environment with 45-50 percent R.H year around. Very discouraging

scgarman said:

So you have to chisel the rounded corners, in order to get the sharp edges shape? Is this how they did it in the 50’s? And what adhesive do you use for inlays? Two part epoxy? Duco cement? Just curious. Whatever Gibson is currently using has a faint yellow color, and in my opinion not that good. I had 3 inlays on a new Les Paul standard start lifting out in less than three years. In a guitar that stays in a home environment with 45-50 percent R.H year around. Very discouraging

Click to expand...

Yes they chiseled the corners back in the 50s, and I use fish glue for the actual inlays

@nuance97 I’ve been planning to order some fish glue and ideally not from SM. Recommended vendors (north america)?

Lee Valley & Blues Creek Guitars sells it

LtDave32 said:

A good while back, I was inspired by a routing jig that @nuance97 (Daniel) showed us. I have a trap inlay job coming up, and I'm damn tired of the tedium of cutting them in by hand. And seeing as this will be done on a Brazilian rosewood fret board from my stock of Braz, I wanted a better way to do it. So I made a jig very similar to Daniel's..

View attachment 881809

You'll notice some "runner" pieces along each side of the hinged flap, and at the outer ends of the flap. This to keep thd hinged flap from moving or wiggling when the flap is down in position to rout. They were glued in place "brush tight" to the flap sides when down.
I used 3/4" particle board for the construction, and added 1/4" strips of MDF to all pieces above the base board to get the correct jig height for my preferences.

There will be notes coming of setup and use, but I can't do them all tonight. So there will be edits here and there .

Basically, this is a pin-router jig made for a Dremel and Stew-Mac or other standoff routing base. It works with all hard routing templates, I like the ones made by @pshupe. He makes excellent steel routing templates, I have a few of them.
View attachment 881813

The Idea is to insert a roll pin or dowel directly under the Dremel bit. the template gets moved around on a smooth wood base, having to follow the pin, as you can see. That pic is what it looks like before you mount the board. The router must be absolutely centered over the pin to work accurately.

View attachment 881817

More pics, method and detail tomorrow..

Click to expand...

This would have helped me alot. I used the same StuMack plung router base and did my Les Paul fretboard inlays by hand (my first trap inlay); too tedious. It did not come out perfect but close. Thank god for super glue and ebony dust.......

jimijam33 said:

This would have helped me alot. I used the same StuMack plung router base and did my Les Paul fretboard inlays by hand (my first trap inlay); too tedious. It did not come out perfect but close. Thank god for super glue and ebony dust.......

Click to expand...

As long as you have one of the @pshupe notched hard templates (or there are others out there, but pete's are superb, I can vouch for that), it's an uncomplicated jig that works with a minimum investment in materials and time.

Some guys use an aluminum or steel guide pin, but I prefer a roll pin. they are slightly oversized, but not a complete tube all the way around, so it compresses to the hole size you drill, installs with a light tap of a plastic mallet, and stays firmly placed without glue. And you can easily remove it if need be.

My 3/32 router bits will be here Wednesday, and I'll post an update and review the work.

LtDave32 said:

Lower the jig, and tap the base around until you get this alignment over the pin

Click to expand...

If you could find a short, say 1/2”, length of metal tubing that had the same internal diameter as the roll pin (or e.g. a small block of aluminium bored to suit), it could be slipped over the roll pin and act as a guide to ensure perfect alignment?

Okay, my 3/32 bits came in, soI got right on it.

I used a cheap Indian RW board for a second test piece before I move on to my Braz board. For some reason, the slotting remained dead-center to the notches, so repositioning the board on the template was not necessary. Remember to use two strips of double-sided tape when doing this.

First thing I did was to upgrade the jig base with a 1" dowel center for the pin. This makes a pin swap much easier..



As predicted, the 3/32 pin and bit made the routs much closer in fit to the inlays.



rather hard to see, though. sorry 'bout that.

Here it is, done to half depth.



I cannot stress strongly enough to resist routing to full depth on one pass . With a small bit like 3/32", taking on that much material can distort the bit and cause it to rout out too big. Take at least two passes to get it to full depth. 3 would be even better.

I reset to full depth and finished the routing. All it took to fit the inlays was a firm push of a sharp chisel in the top corners, and they were seated in flush..



Something I need to convey here..

The inlays from Philadelphia Luthier do not fit perfectly with these templates. I suspect @pshupe used a better grade of inlay when laying this template out. I have another steel template from Pete for split-para inlays, and they fit perfectly. But they were $60 good ones. With the relatively inexpensive Philly Luthier inlays, there's a bit of gap on the sides:



So with the corners chiseled, we have this as a final product:


I will still have to do some small amount of glue-and-sawdust back filling, but that is to be expected with the PL inlays. Again, I bet the more expensive, $60 inlays would be a perfect fit to the stell template .

All told, this jig is a huge success and saved me a ton of tedious work. Certainly better than doing it all by hand, far lesser risk of mistake. I will be using this jig on inlays from now on .

It’s probably a good idea to work up to full depth in multiple passes, but I did it in 1. I didn’t route my inlays to full depth though .070” or whatever the thickness is. I routed them to be at .040” at the extreme corners. Whatever depth that was in the middle… I didn’t have any big issues doing it that way myself.

LtDave32 said:

Something I need to convey here..

The inlays from Philadelphia Luthier do not fit perfectly with these templates. I suspect @pshupe used a better grade of inlay when laying this template out. I have another steel template from Pete for split-para inlays, and they fit perfectly. But they were $60 good ones. With the relatively inexpensive Philly Luthier inlays, there's a bit of gap on the sides:

Click to expand...

Glad it's working out for you Dave. Yes, the inlays I used for the templates are based on Tom Bartlett's. The split inlays were designed with a specific set of inlays. I purchased a set of MOP inlays, ebay chinese ones I believe, scanned them and adjusted until the CAD was exactly perfect for those inlays. That is why they were perfect.

Cheers Peter.

Another great tutorial, thanks @LtDave32

3/32 is a teeny tiny bit, doesn’t have much lateral strength, so the idea of multiple passes makes sense to me. Speed as well as depth matters, though, deeper cuts got to go more slowly.

LPTDMSV said:

Another great tutorial, thanks @LtDave32

3/32 is a teeny tiny bit, doesn’t have much lateral strength, so the idea of multiple passes makes sense to me. Speed as well as depth matters, though, deeper cuts got to go more slowly.

Click to expand...

I once inlaid celtic crosses into ebony with dentist bits, moving the Dremel base around like an Ouija board. They umm, break. Frequently. That was a bitch.

nuance97 said:

It’s probably a good idea to work up to full depth in multiple passes, but I did it in 1. I didn’t route my inlays to full depth though .070” or whatever the thickness is. I routed them to be at .040” at the extreme corners. Whatever depth that was in the middle… I didn’t have any big issues doing it that way myself.

Click to expand...

I tried that, Dan. There was a lot of chatter, and the rout just vibrated into too large. But I had secured the board with only one piece of double-sided tape down the center. That single taping probably contributed to the problem.