A little inlay trick

[Mark G]

Hello all, I usually just look around here but I did something today that might be helpful to share. Wile inlaying an ebony fretboard with some notched diamonds and squares I reached for the white paint as usual to give myself a nice white background to scribe onto and it occurred to me that it might work better to use the white out tape from the stationery drawer. It rolls on dry, sticks beautifully, gives a perfect white background and then is super easy to remove. I'll be using this method rather than paint from now on. Hope some of you out there find this useful.

[Mark G]

Here is a photo with the inlays in place. The finished product is perfect.

[68matts]

That is indeed a neat little trick, thanks for sharing.
Cheers

[Nick]

Thanks for the tip Mr Gobble (Do you have a "real" name? we like to be a little more personable/friendly around here )
How does the tape handle intricate shapes, it doesn't 'bunch' at all with close or short lines?

[Mark G]

Hey there, sorry about the name thing. I'm Mark-i have a little hobby known as gosbellguitars. Feel free to google me and check out my guitars. I build anything from ukuleles, steel strings, electrics and lap steel guitars.
Not sure how the tape will take sharp curves. It seems to stick well enough and takes the scribe line well....I was using a razor blade. It sticks well enough that the superglued pearl pieces grabbed and didn't budge. I have some trickier bits to do for this particular build so will update how it goes.

[Mark McLean]

Hi Mark. Nice tip. Looks like it would give a nice clear mark for the router to follow.
But let me just check if I am understanding this right. You put a slab of the white stuff on the ebony fingerboard and then you place the inlay piece on top and scribe around it to cut the white shape to match the inlay? (or have I got it wrong and the white stuff goes first onto the shell piece?)
cheers
Another Mark

[inoz]

My thanks also Mark, neat trick indeed.

[Mark G]

The white out stuff goes straight onto the ebony board. I thenut a drop of superglue on each piece just to hold them in place while I scribed the outline.

[Kim]

Hey Mark, great tip, thanks for the heads-up

Cheers

Kim

[slowlearner]

Did that tape dispenser come out of the scrapbooking box like the double sided tape?

[Mark G]

Yes Pete, it did. I asked permission though and kept it in the shed until i was asked where it was.

[Mark G]

I just finished some much trickier, tighter curved pieces. I found that i needed to be careful to use a very sharp scribe-blade and not apply too much pressure on the curve at the first pass so as not to tear the white stuff. Another cool thing i noticed was that the superglue will act as a 'de-sticker' and with a little force the pearl pieces may be popped off leaving the space beneath clear....without needing to scribe!!. I still like to scribe the edges though.

[ckngumbo]

Yes Pete, it did. I asked permission though and kept it in the shed until i was asked where it was.

[Alfred J]

Wot a good idea. Thanks

[n~dl]

I just use chalk, scrape some powder off with a razor and work it onto the scribed lines (#11 x-acto). Works well for me!