Thread: Fixing the Gap on Inlay

A technique that works very well for inlays in guitar fingerboards is to fill any gap between the pearl inlay and the ebony board with two part epoxy with some vegetable black mixed in. I let this cure overnight and sand the fill back, it's an almost invisible repair. CA adhesives used in this way need to be of a high viscosity type to work effectively. CA does have the advantage of curing quickly using accelerator.

For what it's worth my method of inlaying is to cut the inlays out first with a jewelers saw, then clean the edges up. I position the inlays on the board where they will eventually live and fix them with a tiny dab of CA. Then I scribe around each piece with a fine scalpel point, this leaves a fine incised line in the fingerboard. I then prise each inlay piece carefully from the board.

The next job is to rub chalk into the scribed lines to highlight them, I then go to town with a Dremel in a home built router base, using dental burrs as router bits to hog out the ebony carefully working gradually up to my scribed lines. I finish off any corners or missed edges with home made 1/16" chisels. I make these by grinding down the top section of old three sided hand saw sharpening files, honing them up and attaching a simple handle to the blunt end.

This method almost guarantees near perfect fitting inlays.