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  1. #1
    Wal's Avatar
    Lives in Stockport, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 30-03-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 491. Received thanks 71 times, giving thanks to others 29 times.
    I've just recently finished this project for a local guitar builder. He tends to supply his fingerboards as flat oversized stock which I'll pocket about a millimetre deeper than the pearl thickness and then he sands down to where he needs the surface/radius etc. So as it is, it's not a finished piece, just my CNC bit.

    Cutters used for the wood were 2mm (for a rough pocket with about .15mm allowance) then a 1mm followed by a .5mm for the detailing around the profiles - these were programmed as being .06mm undersized to give a bit of clearance for the mother of pearl shapes to drop in.

    I superglued the pearl blanks down to a plate of aluminium, scanned that in, then (in Illustrator) positioned the vector shapes where I needed them to fall on the blanks and added a datum at the bottom left which I matched with my x/y zero in CAM and in turn zeroed off my machine at that corner too. It's reasonably accurate, but you can get a bit of a shift if what you've scanned isn't sat flat on the scan bed - here the alu plate was nearly a couple of mm off the surface due to the pearl blanks, so its relative position to the pearl blanks wasn't represented exactly in the resulting scan. At this scale it's no big deal, but if you're going right to the edge of a blank it pays to check that your tool isn't riding off the edge at some point in the cut - if it is, just tweak the x/y zero on the machine.

    The nice thing about supergluing to the aluminium plate is that, once cut, you can boil the whole assembly for 5-10 minutes and once cooled the pieces separate from the plate with just a gentle nudge - exactly what you want with the more delicate pieces.

    Anyway, some pics of the results:

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    Wal.

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to Wal For This Useful Post:


  3. #2
    phill05's Avatar
    Lives in Derbyshire  UK, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 22 Hours Ago Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 295. Received thanks 28 times, giving thanks to others 13 times.
    Real nice job Wal that will look impressive on the finished piece.

    Phill

  4. #3
    Yes, very nice indeed. You have to watch the dust from that and the wood, don't be breathing it in.
    Spelling mistakes are not intentional, I only seem to see them some time after I've posted

  5. #4
    Wal's Avatar
    Lives in Stockport, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 30-03-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 491. Received thanks 71 times, giving thanks to others 29 times.
    Quote Originally Posted by EddyCurrent View Post
    Yes, very nice indeed. You have to watch the dust from that and the wood, don't be breathing it in.
    Cheers guys. Yep, I hear you Eddy - wore a respirator for the pearl, although I'm in the market for one of those dust filters - something like this:

    http://www.axminster.co.uk/jet-afs-5...RoC8pQQAvD_BwE

    Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

  6. #5
    Looks nice, not seen any mother of pearl cnc machined on here before.
    .Me

  7. #6
    mekanik's Avatar
    Lives in Barrow in Furness, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 13 Hours Ago Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 786. Received thanks 96 times, giving thanks to others 176 times.
    Very nice Wal(as usual)
    That filters OK but you would be better trying to catch it @ source so theres no chance of inhaling it. centrifugal setup on your vacuum might help.
    Mike

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Wal View Post
    Cheers guys. Yep, I hear you Eddy - wore a respirator for the pearl, although I'm in the market for one of those dust filters - something like this:

    http://www.axminster.co.uk/jet-afs-5...RoC8pQQAvD_BwE

    Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
    Hi Wal

    This might save you a few bob http://www.rutlands.co.uk/pp+woodwor...filters+d01110 but Mekanik is right about catching the dust at scource. By the way nice work on the inlays. Do the cutters last long as the pearl is fairly abrasive.

    Cheers

    Andrew
    Last edited by the great waldo; 08-12-2017 at 04:54 PM.

  9. #8
    Wal's Avatar
    Lives in Stockport, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 30-03-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 491. Received thanks 71 times, giving thanks to others 29 times.
    Quote Originally Posted by the great waldo View Post
    Hi Wal

    This might save you a few bob http://www.rutlands.co.uk/pp+woodwor...filters+d01110 but Mekanik is right about catching the dust at scource. By the way nice work on the inlays. Do the cutters last long as the pearl is fairly abrasive.

    Cheers

    Andrew
    Cheers for that link Andrew, yeah - a fair whack cheaper that..! It specifies being mounted at a height of 2m or greater. I'm in a vaulted cellar, so perhaps one of these filters isn't the best option for me. Not having given it a great deal of thought, I was hoping to pop it under an existing bench... but having my boiler etc. located down there, means that my cellar's pretty warm - a fairly constant 20℃ - I imagine the particles would be happy floating around on the warm air where that kind of filter would be most efficient in picking them off. At leg height it's probably doing its bare minimum...

    I think that even a vacuum cleaner picking 'em off at source might struggle to contain these particles without a very decent filtration system - the cutters pulverize the stone and pretty much turn it into super fine talcum powder...

    As pearl work is always small scale, I wonder if it's worth me making myself a little water tray fixture that traps the particles as they're cut..? Hmm... I wonder...

    Wal.

    Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

  10. #9
    Hi Wal

    I would imagine wetting the pearl would keep the dust down and possibly increase the life of the cutters. I've been making guitars for 40 years and in the old days I used to grind abalone shells dry with a grizzly disk on a black and decker drill, Mixed up with a nice dose of nitro cellulose i'll be glad if I make my pension. Luckily I don't smoke LOL I don~t think it matters much where you put the filter but higher up would capture more airborne dust or put the filter by the where your'e cutting maybe with a small computer fan blowing towards the filter or just get one of those cheapo 4 inch kitchen ventilators with the flexi hose that comes with it and run it outside. I use uhu blue epoxy for pearl mixed with a little polyester colouring paste and some fine ebony or whatever wood you are using dust (the dust (not too fine) stops any filler becoming to shiny if the fingerboard is polished)

    Cheers

    Andrew
    Last edited by the great waldo; 08-12-2017 at 07:35 PM.

  11. #10
    Wal's Avatar
    Lives in Stockport, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 30-03-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 491. Received thanks 71 times, giving thanks to others 29 times.
    >in the old days I used to grind abalone shells dry with a grizzly disk on a black and decker drill, Mixed up with a nice dose of nitro cellulose i'll be glad if I make my pension.

    Oh gawd... Yeah, I fear that spores borne on a mist of WD40 have done me no favours whatsoever since moving down into the cellar to keep the machine company... What's the old adage - 'find what you love and then let it kill you...' Doubt it was meant literally, though..!

    Would love to see some of your guitar work - do you have a site?

    Thanks for the tip on installing the inlay - I've yet to try one personally, the work I do gets passed back to the client who runs a guitar/bass building course up here in Manchester and he goes through the process with his students. It's usually a nice tight fit - here are a couple I did a while back:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Wal.

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