I'm working on a guitar based (sort of) on Jerry Garcia's "Tiger" guitar. The guy commissioning it wants the Dead lightning bolt on the headstock. Some time ago I bought some shell material on a bit of a whim. I really didn't know what I was buying when I bought it.
My first thought was to cut it and just glue it on the surface of the headstock. After a few attempts at cutting it I realized that wouldn't work. It just chips out when you try to cut it. I was told that it's meant to be glued to a substrate, so I glued it to some really thin maple and was able to cut it fairly easily using a jeweler's saw with a super fine blade. After cutting I used a fine file to finalize the shape.
After this I had a good cut out, but I knew that trying to inlay something like this would be difficult. Instead I drilled out a 1.25" hole, and put a piece of black laminate on the back, positioned the lightning bolt and filled the hole with epoxy. I did one pour yesterday and another this morning. It seems to be working well. After I took this pic I went over the epoxy with a torch and all the bubbles came out. I should be honest and say my first attempt went sideways when I found the epoxy I used was really cloudy, so I had to drill out the first attempt and start over again.
I had a slight moment of concern when I realized the epoxy leaked under the tape I put on the back and stuck the plate to the mdf. A little careful work with a knife and I got it liberated.
I did all this on the headstock plate before I mounted it, so if things got messed up I could just cut out another one. I've got way too much time in this right now, but if I had to do it again, I could do all this in under an hour, I think.
My first thought was to cut it and just glue it on the surface of the headstock. After a few attempts at cutting it I realized that wouldn't work. It just chips out when you try to cut it. I was told that it's meant to be glued to a substrate, so I glued it to some really thin maple and was able to cut it fairly easily using a jeweler's saw with a super fine blade. After cutting I used a fine file to finalize the shape.
After this I had a good cut out, but I knew that trying to inlay something like this would be difficult. Instead I drilled out a 1.25" hole, and put a piece of black laminate on the back, positioned the lightning bolt and filled the hole with epoxy. I did one pour yesterday and another this morning. It seems to be working well. After I took this pic I went over the epoxy with a torch and all the bubbles came out. I should be honest and say my first attempt went sideways when I found the epoxy I used was really cloudy, so I had to drill out the first attempt and start over again.
I had a slight moment of concern when I realized the epoxy leaked under the tape I put on the back and stuck the plate to the mdf. A little careful work with a knife and I got it liberated.
I did all this on the headstock plate before I mounted it, so if things got messed up I could just cut out another one. I've got way too much time in this right now, but if I had to do it again, I could do all this in under an hour, I think.
..?....
