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Inlace

#5
iamlowsound said:
If it is an epoxy, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Although I have never used it.

lowsound
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From everything I've read, it does indeed sound like a two part epoxy with fancy additives. Honestly, it's more the additives I'm interested in.
My current build is going to have a transparent blue finish on the curly maple body. The fretboard is Birdseye maple, so my plan is to use the metallic blue metal dust that they sell, mix with CA glue, and use it to make my position dots on the fretboard face.

I'll post again when it's done so I can at least share my experience.
 
#10
It didn't come out as blue as I'd hoped, but still looks really cool. Pix don't do it justice but here's a couple anyway.
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#12
Quick update to anyone that's interested. The Inlace worked great, sanded nicely, and the only problem I found is that you gotta be careful or you'll get glittery dust all over your shop.
I'm gonna call this experiment a success. Heck, check it out and you tell me. I'm gonna order some more of their "fancy additives", not really interested in their epoxy.
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#14
__HM__ said:
That looks stellar. Imagine those dots on a sparkle finished body... Yum. :)
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Well, the body for this bass is curly maple, and it's going to be dyed blue, so it'll be a good match I think.

As I've worked on this the last few days, I've been debating a sparkle finished bass as an upcoming build. I really like the way this turned out, so I'm gonna order a few more colors and probably at the very least use it to do my logo inlays in the future. It all depends on the bass, really.
 
#16
Rip; I used to make jewelry back in the day. We used to crush up stone such as lapis or turquoise into little tiny, tiny pieces and then inlay the crush into rings and braclets, etc. into pockets or channels created in the piece, using glue (CA). Then you finish as you would any stone work and it comes out pretty kool. I never thought about using it for guitars until your thread! In fact, I have a bunch of the stuff left over from 40 years ago, especially the lapis lazuli which is a beautiful blue color. One thing to keep in mind as you do it, is after you've crushed up the stone, remove the stone dust, it will only dirty up the appearance of your inlay. Hmmm, you've got me thinking again dude!

Your dots look awesome, BTW!
 
#18
Ruckus_Instrmts said:
Really any metallic flake for automotive paint will work. You could probably even tint the epoxy with something like Transtint.
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I'm gonna be experimenting like crazy now that I know it works. The transtint idea is a good one, cuz that's what I use to dye the body wood. On a maple fretboard it might be a little scary trying to avoid making a mess, though.
 
#20
Ruckus_Instrmts said:
For the maple board; I would make a square "blank" in a mold first and then cut out the designs and inlay them in the board. Applying the dyed epoxy to a clean maple board is asking for trouble.
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Thats what I was thinking too. Thanks. When I did these dots it was very simple, but there were no dyes involved. I simply added the Inlace powder, the topped it off with CA. When it dries, I sanded it flush and polished the whole board out with micromesh. Really easy and I'm very happy with the results.
Of course, I'm a very new builder, so as I progress, I'm sure I'll get ALOT more complex with my inlays.
 

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