shaping b'eye maple fingerboard

[fanlee]

Hi.

I haven't done a maple fingerboard neck.

I have used a laminate trimmer in a jig to radius rosewood fingerboards.

Are there any issues to look out for in using the same method on a birdseye maple fingerboard?

Thanks.

[kiwigeo]

I haven't routed birdseye but being a brittle wood I'd look at running high speed and slow feed rate but watching for first signs of burning. Also make sure cutter is sharp and try and use climbing cut.

A quick Google reveals that quite a few people recommend wetting surface of the wood prior to routing.

If you've got a scrap piece of birdseye.....do a bit of experimenting on same.

[SawDustSniffer]

wetting an edge is a trick to cool your bit , and make the bit last 10x longer, not recommended on anything veneered

[old_picker]

i would invest in a tungsten spiral bit for this job
depends a on whether you are trimming it from above or below the board on choice of upcut or downcut / pattern following or not

you need the spirals cutting away from the edge of the board
i have found this type of bit very usefull - far superior to straight flutes - it is however at least double or even triple the price of a straight flute bit

oh and another con they cant be sharpened AFAIK

[fanlee]

...well...they're radiused slotted dots in and ready to glue & fret but despite shellacing every surface all this wet weather has resulted in a longitudinal warp..that is the bottom looks like it's been radiused as well...about 0.5mm

I am planning to lightly sand the bottoms brush on hot water and then clamp them to a flat surface for a few days.

Is this a reasonable course of action? Is there a better way?

I don't have enough thickness to level off the edges.

Thanks Rob.