MIMF

Hi Folks - I have only posted here a few times but lurk often (sorry, should participate more). I thought y'all might want to see the pantograph I designed for doing inlay work on guitars. This is for use with my Dremel and flex cable. I did one simple test with it and that worked fine but I'll do some more before I cut into some nice exotic wood or Abalone.

Right now I'm reworking the stylus to be micro-adjustable and hope to finish that this week. And if all goes well I will finish my first build in about 6 weeks.

This pantograph is very smooth and precise so I'm pleased with that part of it. It will do 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 reductions.

Pantograph for Inlay work

Thanks for all the knowledge you guys share,
David

That's pretty nice David. I built one similar to that a few years ago, including the fact that it was a double decker. I can verify that the extra height really adds to the stability.

I discovered on mine that a dremel was too under powered and too slow to cut shell smoothly. Things were greatly improved with the use of a pneumatic die grinder that would spin up to 65k rpm. For the stylus I use a pin vise which can hold different diameter rods to adjust the inlay's fit. I make my templates (positive and negative) with Smooth-On casting materials over hand cut brass originals at 2X.

Thanks, Barry! I'm actually looking at pin vises now to use as a stylus for the same reasons - interchangeability of tips. I want mine to be adjustable so I have incorporated a threaded rod but still developing that portion. I have not considered another way of making the templates other than cutting on the scroll saw and am not familiar with Smooth-On casting materials but I'll check that out, as well.