Help! Trying to burn fretlines on first CBG build

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on July 24, 2012 at 8:24am

The soldering iron is probably not getting hot enough. I spent 10 bucks on a wood burning pencil from the craft store and it works like a charm.

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Permalink Reply by Skeet on July 24, 2012 at 10:26am

Ooops, wrong spot.

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Permalink Reply by ED (Bad Finger) on July 24, 2012 at 9:22am

I've always burned the lines before finishing, but that won't help you at this point unless you want to sand the poly all the way off the fingerboard.  I'd say you need yourself some more watts.

I use a similar lower wattage iron and a chisel tip rather than the point.  I usually have to press the chisel into the wood and hold, then move to the next spot, press, hold, etc.  It makes a nice rustic line, but does take awhile.

I use my tri-square as a guide to keep the line roughly straigh, but not too straight.

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Permalink Reply by Josiah Goldsmith on July 24, 2012 at 9:47am

That's exactly what I was doing, I noticed that when I held the iron in place it burned, but that made the line quite deep. Is this a problem or should I just varnish over it? Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it :)

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Permalink Reply by ED (Bad Finger) on July 24, 2012 at 10:56am

I don't think it's a problem.  A nice rustic look.  Which is a nice way to say purposely crappy.  But I like it and I think it adds character to the neck.  If you want perfect lines then use frets.  Just my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Skeet on July 24, 2012 at 10:26am

I use a scraper and a blow torch.  I built a jig that I lay the fret board in and heat the scraper in the middle till it turns red then I drag it through the jig.  I get straight even depth lines every time.  You can just hold it in place and press down but you have to get more of the blade hot.  I've never been able to get nice even lines with the wood burner.  If you try it, use a thicker scraper, the cheap thin ones will warp as soon as it heats up.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on July 24, 2012 at 11:31am

You should have done it on bare wood, the finish will keep the wood from burning until it melts the finish away too. I would go get a wood burning tool, I think they work better. All mine are burnt and I have burned them in over finished wood it just takes longer to heat. I would suggest sanding the fretboard some more to make it easier, then put on more urathane. good luck, it will work.

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Permalink Reply by Josiah Goldsmith on July 24, 2012 at 2:05pm

Ok, so i came up with a brilliant new method of making fretlines (or my dad did anyway): using a trisquare, I cut a shallow line with a Stanley knife. Then I buffed off the fingerboard with some wire wool to get rid of the lumps around the grooves. After that, I waxed the whole fingerboard with a darker wax. The wax filled the grooves and made thin, dark lines. It also worked with fret markers, but only the tiny ones on the side of the neck and even then not fantastically.
Still, it worked and very clean! Thanks dad! :D

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Permalink Reply by ED (Bad Finger) on July 24, 2012 at 3:02pm

I like that.  I will give it a try in the future.  Sounds a lot faster than burning.  Would be interesting to maybe double score each fret line about .020-.040"[.5-1mm] apart.

I've also used a brown sharpie marker followed by clear poly.  I should have let the marker cure for a day or 2 because the wet poly did make the lines feather out a bit.

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Permalink Reply by wormil on July 25, 2012 at 4:51am

Cut lines for your fret marks, burn the whole top then sand it back so just the lines show.

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