GET INLAID

I had glued my designs onto the new ebony Friday so that I was ready to scribe this weekend, Sunday as it turned out. Again, the scribing went well because it was all straight lines. The trickiest bit was the small triangles in the larger design.

Then I decided that I would trim off the excess ebony to keep it out of my way, and use it for something else later. I pondered whether a circular saw was rather too much tool for the job, but I don’t have a bandsaw and the idea of doing the hacksaw thing seemed like too much work.

The thing about me is, I have these inklings of impending doom, but I tend to disregard them, much to my eventual chagrin. This was one of those times. I’d barely started cutting and I heard a lot of scary noise, so I stopped the saw, fearing I’d run aground, right into the metal table leg, although I couldn’t imagine how. When I pulled the saw away, I saw this:

The metal noise I heard were chips of ebony pinging off Scott’s fender, as his car was parked in the garage for a change. (Shhh…don’t tell!) It took out big chunks, and, as you may notice in the photo, cracked along a grain line all the way up to the larger of the two designs. How bad was it?

Oh, about this bad:

Note to self: Do not use circular saw on 5/32” stock. Antiguo told me that he learned to pay attention when something didn’t feel right while he was working in the shop. Invariably, his spidey-sense was right, and a tool was about to malfunction in a dangerous way. I need to start listening to my misgivings and develop those instincts. Ebony is somewhat spendy, and I ruin enough of it through lack of skill; I don’t need to be wrecking it through stupidity, too.

So since the smaller design, which was also the less complicated to rout, was intact, I flipped the other broken piece over and stuck the bigger design to it and set it aside to work on the smaller design.

Here’s the cavity after the first pass with the router bit. It’s not too shabby. Some cleanup to do, especially in the points of the star, with smaller dental burrs.

Here’s the first test fitting. About half of it is in, so I had to do some more clean-up in the sections under 5 and 8 with a couple different burrs. I worked slowly, keeping the vacuum and the router running while stopping periodically to try the fit again. I didn’t want to overdo.

Then I filled it with glue, stuck the piece in (as it was just a single plate), and pressed down with some jeweler’s files to get it to seat properly, threw some wax paper over the top, and then clamped it with a piece of walnut.

While that was curing, I turned my attention to the bigger design and scribed it again. Then I went right into the routing, which was a little more complicated because I was cutting out what amounted to multiple adjoining cavities. When I tried to fit it in, it was clearly off. You can see major gaps throughout, and especially inside piece #3.

I decided that while I could probably get away with more than I imagine because I’m working in ebony and superglue dries dark, especially with a dark ground behind it, I decided it wasn’t good enough. I can’t half-ass it if I really want to learn how to do this, and ever get to doing my own guitar. So I pulled the design off and glued it for the 4th time onto the raggedy piece of ebony I cut off this piece earlier in the day. I’ll scribe it again, and I’ll do it again. I’ll keep doing it until I get it right. I did an acceptable job on the small design, so I know it’s not impossible. And I know I was a little mentally and physically tired by the time I got to the bigger, more complicated design, so I probably should’ve quit while I was ahead and waited to do the more difficult routing when I was fresh. The good news is, the replacement router base Stew-Mac sent me didn’t give me a moment’s trouble; all problems were solely the result of operator error.

Next up, I’ll sand the small design. That should be interesting. I’ve got several levels of shell and wood. It’ll take a long time to get it all flush, as you’re only supposed to rout to the depth of the thinnest material. Another reason to buy your materials in a single size wherever possible. And then I’ll try routing the bigger design, but I think that will wait until Saturday, when I’m well-rested. I can sand anytime this week, though. You don’t need to be terribly mentally sharp for sanding!