Inlay radius question

[Cederick]

How does it work with inlays and radius?

I wanna learn to make inlays so one question is how to make them as round as the fretboard?

:dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

It's pretty simple. You cut a depression the shape of the inlay out of the fretboard, glue the inlay in, then cut/grind/sand the neck to the shape/radius you want. That, and about a million details...

 

[line6man]

I'm not really sure what you're asking. Inlays get radiused when the fretboard is radiused.Grab a radiused sanding block and get to it.

 

[Cederick]

Ok, thanks I didn't know that. I was searching around and couldn't find an answer for this elsewhere.
I guess it's too obvious haha, but I usually miss obvious facts

 

[Cagey]

Incidentally, you can get radius sanding blocks here and here. You might also want a radius gauge(s) like this or these.

 

[anorakDan]

It's maybe overstating the obvious, but you want to do that radius sanding before installing the frets!

 

[Cederick]

Yeah I ahve understood that, now I'm getting how this all works.
Just gotta get to try it out!

I have an old Ibanez Destroyer that I wanna refret and make new inlays on. I got it for free a few years ago and while it is a great guitar I wanna make it alpine white, one-pickup only, and another bridge.
It's an extensive project for a newbie, but I have a vision of how it's gonna look, haha. Will be LOT of work with plugging in old holes and make it look "natural".

 

[Cederick]

Too bad Warmoth doesn't have them. I live in sweden so there would be way too much shipping costs for both a new guitar build and radius block...

In sweden we have gitarrdelar.se which only sells short radius blocks, but I guess using a long one will be more precise right?

 

[Cagey]

Too bad Warmoth doesn't have them. I live in sweden so there would be way too much shipping costs for both a new guitar build and radius block...

In sweden we have gitarrdelar.se which only sells short radius blocks, but I guess using a long one will be more precise right?

If it was me, I would want a longer block. The more consistent your fretboard surface, the less work you'll have to do to get the frets level, which leaves you with more consistently-sized frets. But, if you had a set of gauges and were patient, I imagine the short blocks would work. I just have it in mind that the short blocks are more for repair work, while the long ones are more for building. In the case of installing inlays, I'd call that more of a "building" application. But, I'm just guessing. I haven't done that kind of work.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Maybe you could ask GMF about the length of their "Radieklots Superblock":

http://gmf.jetshop.se/verktyg/slipmaterial-c-1112-6.aspx  (scroll down).

Else Rockinger has them:

http://www.rockinger.com/index.php?cat=WG181&product=09151%2F09152%2F09153%2F09154&sid3=fca9aede4b329ea2bc8cc0ac29201167 (still inside the EU).

Hilsen fra Danmark