Finally got a laser engraver. Took almost 2 1/2 years to arrive. Yeah, got lost in the pandemic, well the paperwork did. Kickstarter project, I paid for it about 3 years ago, never been refunded. 😳
First thing I’ve done with it on a guitar is my 12th fret inlay. HOT DAMN!!! 🤣🤣 Next is the headstock logo! I can go as big as 80mm square but diagonally about 113mm. Diagonally may be much more difficult to align though.
@robin that’s exactly how I’m doing it. Using the engraver I run 3 passes at 80% power and 90% carving speed. I then took fine MOP pressed it in, lightly dusted around the area with a small art brush, then wicked in the CA. After that I then finished sanding all the inlay on the fretboard.
@rathius I've got the neje 3 plus, have been thinking about doing a full on fretboard job but so far just use it for the headstock logo. I leave the power fairly low then just keep running the laser over a few times to get it deeper without burning to much.
@nsj That gives it more of a wood burning look doesn’t it. Not very deep at all just darken the logo. Cool, cool, cool. That would be an easy way of differentiating between say model A-1 and model A-2, meaning A-2 being an upscaled version of A-1. Dude!!!! Big hug to ya for sending me down that path. I love it. Only one thing, won’t work on a black headstock so…,
drumroll 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
a black headstock face with MOP logo. And now we have A-3. Damnit man!
you’re causing me way too much work dude. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Seriously though that’s probably where I’ll go with it now. Of course the black headstock face is kind of an industry thing already right?
All joking aside, I do absolutely love the idea of just barely etching the wood so it darkens yet barely goes below the surface. I will be experimenting to see how I can get that too. Thank you again.
@nsj as for a full on fretboard, uhm you mean the dots or artwork, like a dragon, roses, etc?
something I had considered was starting with 2 pieces of abalone shell as fretboard marker inlay. I have some that are 1.5mm x 2mm x 6mm so thought of staggering them so only 3mm of each would be touching the other. Then as I went down the neck rotate them slightly with each new location, similar to what PRS does with the birds.
A bit more involved than I want to get right now but it might happen soonish (next 6 months).
@rathius I was thinking like a tree, dragon etc. Could fill with resin, getting the hang of that now. The secret is a tiny amount of pigment, then you can get patterns in the resin instead of a solid block of colour.
This is my latest go with resin and my best yet imo
But I think it could work using other materials like abalone etc, just use a dark board then suoperglue and sawdust around any ragged areas.
@nsj oh I need to show you fret 24. I did it with a dremel on a plunge base with edge guide against the end of the fretboard. Made a little mess but what the hell. It’s the first iteration of this design and I have a tendency to experiment with those. I refer to #1 of any of my designs as prototypes . 😁. Makes me feel better about a mistake 😂. Works well as an excuse when someone finds one that you missed too! 🤣🤣🤣
@rathius straight edge is a good idea, used that method to cut the slot for the switch on my strat build, worked great. Also with plunge base, got the elmer one which is identical to all of them lol.
Mark has a bunch of live vids on the guitar making youtube channel too if you haven't seen them, under the live tab. Various stuff including doing an inlay etc