My Shell Cutting Jig

[dzthings]

I decided to learn something about cutting shell and doing inlay - as if building my first kit guitar is not complicated enough! I really got inspired after watching the first Larry Robinson DVD, and he made it sound like something I could and should attempt. So, in the spirit of boldly going where no Joe Dz has gone before, I figured I should give it a try. I'm really glad I did. :)

First step was to make a jig to cut the shell. Inspired by the stew mac design + what Larry used in the DVD + many web searches I came up with this.



It hooks up to my shop vac, and has screens to prevent the good stuff from getting sucked in.



You can see my first attempt at inlay in the background of that last photo - it's in a piece of MDF I made to test peghead designs.

If you're interested, here's my blog post which describes how I built and used this thing.

Joe Dz

[JVan]

That is sweet~ Nicely done Joe Dz!!

JV

[dzthings]

Thanks JV! I appreciate it :)

Well done!

-tommy

[darren]

Yeah that is really nice. I'm filing that away for another day...

[johnnparchem]

That is nice. I have a jig with a blower instead of a vacuum, but I do like the idea of the screen to catch your work when working on a small piece.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

That is quite niffty! I don't do my own cutting, but that is most slick.

Kevin