Hello everyone and my first question

[dsutherland]

Hello everyone, I'm Dave, new to this forum and looking forward to being part of the community.

I started building about 3 years ago under the guidance of Darrel and Hugh at Wheeler Custom Lutherie (previously Gilet Guitars)

I'm now doing the majority of the building from my home workshop and am starting to hit the double digits with acoustics. I also have a number of ukes and electrics on the go as well.

My first question is regarding headstock inlay.

I want my headstocks to have my signature inlayed with MOP or abalone but handwritten Sutherland is very tricky to inlay by hand, especially if its not ebony. Whilst I enjoy doing my own inlay work and will continue to practice I would also like to know if there is somewhere in Australia that I can send some headplates and a pdf file of my signature and have the inlays done in bulk?

If anyone could help that would be much appreciated

Looking forward to being part of this site

[simso]

I do my own, there are a few talented people about, I personally am a fan of John from extreme labels work, sales@labelx.net

Steve

[simso]

... in error

[WJ Guitars]

Welcome Dave to the forum. When I first become interested in setup my workshop guitar building I was given good advise from Gilet at Botany. Good to hear how you have become involved in guitar building.

Recently, I was searching to purchase some pearl slabs and found a company called 'Australian Mother Of Pearl Company' in Victoria. On their website I found a spot where they offer a service to make logos on their CNC equipment. I think that you would need to supply CAD drawing files of your inlay design. I think that the cost is reasonably priced to this work. I tried to go to their website this morning, however, I was not able to access it not sure why.

Hope this may be of some help to you.

Wayne

[peter.coombe]

I get my logos done by Andy DePaul if I want it done in shell. These are all done by hand, not something I can do myself, the eyesight ain't what it used to be. I also have a small CNC that I use to make my logo out of wood. The CNC sounds like a good idea, but it was a great time sink until I got it working. Once working I can make as many as I like. One problem was the logo required a very small bit and the bit kept breaking so it required a fair bit of trial and error to get the cutting speed below what breaks the bit. There were lots of other problems, but it now works fine, has paid for itself, but I would not use it to cut shell, the bit would break. For a bigger and simpler logo where you could use a bigger bit it would probably be ok. I have used Australian Mother of Pearl to make logos, but the last attempt was problematic and their CNC guy has said he is not doing it again because it is too difficult. I now know why!

[WJ Guitars]

Dave, I make my logo inlays using a pantograph that i built and previously posted my pantograph jig in the forum. I wanted to be able make repeatable logos and decided that instead of making a full name logo I design a logo with my initials. This easier to do and reduces the potential difficulties cutting more complex designs and is used by many luthiers. You just need to create a more interesting format for this style of design or, maybe a symbol style logo.

I have watched the 'Stewmac' inlay video and I am impressed with the hand work and method used to cut a more complex logo. If you have the time / patience, with good eyes and a steady hand making repeat logos for your guitars is possible. I have also watched a number of CNC you tubes cutting complex shell inlays and yes very impressive results. Many factors and stages are involved as I would expect you may be aware of.

I'm now more comfortable and experienced using the pantograph. Recently, I made a modification to my pantograph and added thumbwheels to make fine controlled depth cut. This control minimises breaking the fine router bits when cutting the pearl slabs. It is important to only make very small depth increases as you cut the pearl.

Using the pantograph my guide templates are sized at 2:1 ratio. I designed my logo on a free CAD drawing program and had the insert and pocket templates laser cut from a local laser cutting company. Each template cost me around $12.00. I just had to submit a DWG drawing files to have them made out of perplex. If you want them made in metal the cost would increase. See photo attachments.

If you are interested in this method I can provided more details.

Wayne

[lamanoditrento]

Welcome to the forum Dave. I can recommend Michael Lau on instagram at @michael___lau . He does a lot of work for the Brisbane guitar making school.

[dsutherland]

Thank you everyone for the replies and for welcoming me to the forum. Happy to report that I now cut them on my own cnc and am pleased with the results. Apologies for the late response, I didn't think anyone had replied and just recently discovered the answers going to my junk mail