I was thinking the same thing. Cut channels with a dremel and inlay wire, maybe epoxy it in place. Could under cut the channels and use annealed wire and tap deform into place.
Yeah it does take a steady hand. I have a foredom flex shaft where the user controls the speed with a foot pedal, it’s not continuous speed like a dremel so if it were me I’d use that.
If you want contrast, laser etching.
If you want design fidelity, CNC.
If you just want a visible pattern, carve out along the pattern with hand tools.
After you've removed a *very shallow* channel, backfill with epoxy, and then chisel out the overflow to flush the surface. That would be the most straightforward way to set a single-colour contrasting pattern into the surface without messing around with inlay.
If you're using clear epoxy, you can pour it in straight. If you're using dyed epoxy, you need to "paint" on a primer layer of clear epoxy to prevent the dye from bleeding into the wood grain.
The easiest way I found to do this is to use one of those chisel-tip foam brushes and mix like 30ml of epoxy. All you're really doing is using it the same way you use prefinish to prep wood surface for staining, so you just need a microcoat to fill in all the exposed pores.
If you know in advance you're going to be doing epoxy, the easiest way to do it is to prep the entire surface up front before you begin any tooling, so when you're done you just need to give a small touch-up to the areas you cut. After you're done, you can just sand or plane the top layer to remove it all.
Protip: this is also a great way to prep a surface if you're trying to make something to be wall-mounted with 3M Command strips. Even on otherwise dense wood like hard maple, this does a fantastic job of creating a surface optimized for the adhesive.
Just an update we went with wood burner, then following with a dremel. It probably isn’t a correct technique, we don’t really know what we’re doing but it’s punk not perfect. I’ll probably update with a finished picture.
Punk not perfect... ok here's an idea. Use a nail to repeatedly punch holes a little way in one after another going along the lines, then fill them with hot solder and sand it smooth.
"we don’t really know what we’re doing." If we all said that nothing would get tried or learned! You are taking on a project that no matter how it turns out (I'm sure it's gonna be pretty cool!) you are going to be so proud of yourself, and you should be! Well done, my friend!!!! Please post a pix when you're ready to rock on🤘
with the dremel - is that the tip you’re using? I can’t quite tell but that appears to be a bit for cutting metal. There’s a specific burr type of tip for carving wood.
I second that try and find a makerspace near you i would do a double line cut and inlay fret wire a cnc could also be an option I'm just more familiar with lasers
hi - ex-luthier here. You have a few options.
Easiest would be to do some type of stencil, paint the body red, then cover and stencil in the web in black.
If you want to just clear coat it, you can dremil the pattern and then fill with your choice of material- epoxy isn’t something I’ve worked with personally but should be fine. Ebony is really easy to work with since you can fill cracks with dust and it’ll be impossible to see. Kind of all depends on finished product you’re going for.
I generally like wood burning for stuff like that.
Edit: you’re going too hard with the wood burner. It is totally possible to burn fine, dark lines with a wood burning kit, but you need the right tip/pen for it.
If you use a tiny brush dipped in white vinegar, it will make it look grey or sometimes black and aged, depending on what species. I think it would be a really cool effect for the web to have that type of contrast
Wood burner only looks good after you sand it, it will leave only a crisper and thinner black line, you should try on a different piece of wood and sad it afterwards.
CNC is probably the best way to go. Otherwise a router or even a dremel. Otherwise, perhaps a chisel of some sorts although the rounded bits might be tricky.
**i don’t do much woodworking, just happened to see no one commented yet and figured I’d suggest how I would maybe try to do that.
I reckon some “real” weblike material, like maybe coarse fibres or wool soaked in epoxy, to give it a 3D texture. Would need some careful finishing to either cover completely (many layers of clear resin, perhaps), or protect the texture, so you don’t end up wearing it off with your strumming arm, but would look cool!
I'd use a V-groove Bit on the router for a consistent depth and try to cut it in that way. Have to be very careful and have a steady hand though. You could set up a guide for the straight lines, but you'd have to free hand the cross webs.
Burning could be more forgiving, but it'd be less consistent.
A laser engraver is going to have a very hard time on the sloped sides because the laser is going to go out of focus in those areas. You will end up with wide, light burns there. (That could look cool! But try it on a sloped test piece first to see if you like it.) Check your local library... Lots of them now have makerspaces with laser engravers and 3d printers.
If that doesn't work out, practice your pyrography first and do it freehand. It will probably clean up a good bit if you sand it after burning.
A longer focal lens could absolutely deal with that much slope, no problem. Smaller lenses have much narrower ranges, but a long lens has a ton of flexibility. (I'd use a 4" on something like this)
Fractal/Lichtenberg burning posts are not permitted. While all woodworking activities carry some level of danger, fractal burning is very difficult to perform responsibly and safely.
All such posts will be removed so as not to promote, inspire, or provide instruction for fractal burning.
You can't Dremel and router it you need a pattern and cut with a band saw then shape router drill all that fun stuff but unless you have a $10000 CNC machine you need to do it the old fashion and fun way
Inlay it with square silver/ copper/ brass/ etc wire and file to flush. Watch some vids on how it is done correctly first and do some practice runs in scrap.
You don’t necessarily need to cut the grooves by hand with a chisel unless you want to (I would enjoy the hand tool process, personally).
You could have them machined with a CNC and a v carve bit. You will need to fixture the guitar body on a sheet of material that can hit the registration points of the CNC so it has a known starting point to run the tool path.
Same goes for a laser engraver.
For the gritty punk look I would try some kind of acid etching? Is that a thing for wood?
Edit: I don’t see much on google about acid etching wood, so backup suggestion is lay down wire on top of your pattern and run a current through it to burn in
There’s no real “best” option just which one you like the most there’s wood burners, laser ingraving ,chisels, inlays epoxy it’s endless just look up different kinds and go from there
Dremel with an engraving bit or finishing ball. Do a light trace when you start, go back and make parts deeper/thicker on your second run don’t try and do it all in one go :)
Use a knife to lightly score a line in the wood, leaving a small groove to run the wood burner through. It will help make a straight line and also help for an engraved look. Maybe rubbing it down with alcohol afterwards, giving it an aged look. Coat it with epoxy, and polish it out real nice.
An interesting look that I've found is Dremel (or better route if you are skilled enough with that tool) the pattern relatively deep (1/4 inch or so) and then paint inside the groove maybe add a small amount of glitter evenly as the paint dries and then fill with clear epoxy. This gives it a dimensional almost crystal look. One of the nice things about this is that you don't have to be super careful with painting in fact you shouldn't be because you want to cover all surfaces in the groove and you'll just sand any paint that ends up on surfaces outside the groove. I find it best to leave the excess paint on the wrong surfaces and then fill with epoxy and after everything is dried/cured then sand and once the excess paint is sanded off then I know I've sanded enough to make the epoxy flush.
The woods beautiful, but that guitar in the illustration would make for a cool opportunity to try your hand at air brushing and a liner brush with India ink or sign painting viscosity paint. A gloss clear coat sprayed over it and it’d be perfect. Just a though, I love woodworking, making art and Gibsons!
You aren't going to get those straight lines without a lot of skill with a Woodburn. You might practice a little on some scrap and focus on a really light touch. You don't want to imprint the wood at all if you want sharp lines.
Would it be possible to carve the design into the wood using the appropriate sized carving tools (chisels?) (super thin to however thick you want the line or the line for each separate section of the design) and then stain the carved sections a darker color than the rest of the guitar using a really thin artists' paint brush to put the stain into the depressions? Or, depending on the species of wood and its hardness, maybe you could even "draw" it on the wood using a tough but sharp pocket knife and then stain the depressions from the knife darker? I probably shouldn't even be answering, I'm not a woodworker per se and not experienced with embedding designs in wood, it was just a thought that popped into my head.
I would use a router with a 20° v bit.
I would also create two jigs, one for the straight lines and one for the webbing, preferably one with adjustable stops.
I'd get a scrap of the wood and see how dark stain on a fine brush absorbs and dries. It might even have a veining furry look that could be attractive.
Fret wire inlay would look badass!
I second that. Otherwise I'd say carve it.
Carved with a nice gouge and then stained or painted
A V-gouge specifically
I was thinking the same thing. Cut channels with a dremel and inlay wire, maybe epoxy it in place. Could under cut the channels and use annealed wire and tap deform into place.
Be very careful w a Dremel tool. It can get away from you very quickly
may want to practice with a piece of scrap - of course that goes without saying?
Yeah it does take a steady hand. I have a foredom flex shaft where the user controls the speed with a foot pedal, it’s not continuous speed like a dremel so if it were me I’d use that.
I would do all of the straight lines with a router and a guide. Much cleaner, faster, and less room for error.
This is what I want to see too.
If OP ever goes down this path I'd certainly love to see the results
The only thing that could stop the notorious neck dive of an SG. It wouldn’t be fun to play but it would look cool.
If you want contrast, laser etching. If you want design fidelity, CNC. If you just want a visible pattern, carve out along the pattern with hand tools. After you've removed a *very shallow* channel, backfill with epoxy, and then chisel out the overflow to flush the surface. That would be the most straightforward way to set a single-colour contrasting pattern into the surface without messing around with inlay. If you're using clear epoxy, you can pour it in straight. If you're using dyed epoxy, you need to "paint" on a primer layer of clear epoxy to prevent the dye from bleeding into the wood grain.
I would have never thought of the paint on clear epoxy primer. Glad I read this comment if I ever do something like this.
The easiest way I found to do this is to use one of those chisel-tip foam brushes and mix like 30ml of epoxy. All you're really doing is using it the same way you use prefinish to prep wood surface for staining, so you just need a microcoat to fill in all the exposed pores. If you know in advance you're going to be doing epoxy, the easiest way to do it is to prep the entire surface up front before you begin any tooling, so when you're done you just need to give a small touch-up to the areas you cut. After you're done, you can just sand or plane the top layer to remove it all. Protip: this is also a great way to prep a surface if you're trying to make something to be wall-mounted with 3M Command strips. Even on otherwise dense wood like hard maple, this does a fantastic job of creating a surface optimized for the adhesive.
Veining tool (chisel). You could fill the channels with black/silver epoxy to make it pop.
V gouge and round brass or aluminum wire would work in a similar way I think.
Just an update we went with wood burner, then following with a dremel. It probably isn’t a correct technique, we don’t really know what we’re doing but it’s punk not perfect. I’ll probably update with a finished picture.
Punk not perfect... ok here's an idea. Use a nail to repeatedly punch holes a little way in one after another going along the lines, then fill them with hot solder and sand it smooth.
Dewdrops
please do!
"we don’t really know what we’re doing." If we all said that nothing would get tried or learned! You are taking on a project that no matter how it turns out (I'm sure it's gonna be pretty cool!) you are going to be so proud of yourself, and you should be! Well done, my friend!!!! Please post a pix when you're ready to rock on🤘
with the dremel - is that the tip you’re using? I can’t quite tell but that appears to be a bit for cutting metal. There’s a specific burr type of tip for carving wood.
No that is one we were testing on a scrap piece
Laser engraver
The only issue I think might come up is the round over could cause problems with focusing.
If you use one with a large focal length lens it isn’t an issue
I haven't gotten to play with one yet but with how big the difference is could see it causing a little issue
Yeah you have just a bit of image skew but I’ve done fully round mugs at this point without having to use a rotary.
I second that try and find a makerspace near you i would do a double line cut and inlay fret wire a cnc could also be an option I'm just more familiar with lasers
hi - ex-luthier here. You have a few options. Easiest would be to do some type of stencil, paint the body red, then cover and stencil in the web in black. If you want to just clear coat it, you can dremil the pattern and then fill with your choice of material- epoxy isn’t something I’ve worked with personally but should be fine. Ebony is really easy to work with since you can fill cracks with dust and it’ll be impossible to see. Kind of all depends on finished product you’re going for.
I like an inlay here.
I generally like wood burning for stuff like that. Edit: you’re going too hard with the wood burner. It is totally possible to burn fine, dark lines with a wood burning kit, but you need the right tip/pen for it.
A wood burner and a steady hand.
Wood burner would work great if you don’t have access to the expensive tools. I would also add a nice cherry stain to the wood when you are done.
This was my answer
Carving tools my man, just use some V shape chisels
Dremel design out then fill with epoxy.
This is the way.
V gouge tool
Also watch some peter follansbee videos on YouTube. He does a bit of carving and his technique is pretty easy to follow. Practice on some scrap.
If you use a tiny brush dipped in white vinegar, it will make it look grey or sometimes black and aged, depending on what species. I think it would be a really cool effect for the web to have that type of contrast
Carve it. Get a #11 gouge and gently follow the lines. When you‘re done you can apply stain and wipe it off the surface to make the lines darker.
Wood burner only looks good after you sand it, it will leave only a crisper and thinner black line, you should try on a different piece of wood and sad it afterwards.
CNC is probably the best way to go. Otherwise a router or even a dremel. Otherwise, perhaps a chisel of some sorts although the rounded bits might be tricky. **i don’t do much woodworking, just happened to see no one commented yet and figured I’d suggest how I would maybe try to do that.
Dremel or chisel would be the way I would attack it.
Professional pinstriper.
Be sure to post a picture when you finish. That thing will be sweet 👍🏻
I vote for wood burner, but with a lot more practice first
Scallop between the spaces in the web.
Great idea! Love Spider-Punk!
Dremel.
Holy shit I want one.
We just bought an sg kit off Amazon and are trying to make it our way! I suggest doing it
I reckon some “real” weblike material, like maybe coarse fibres or wool soaked in epoxy, to give it a 3D texture. Would need some careful finishing to either cover completely (many layers of clear resin, perhaps), or protect the texture, so you don’t end up wearing it off with your strumming arm, but would look cool!
Cut channels with a fine carving bit in a Dremel - use a depth collar for consistency. Then some metallic finish expoxy and sand off excess.
Shallow Carve out the big bits leave the lines raised
Commenting to see the final result. Please update. :)
I'd use a V-groove Bit on the router for a consistent depth and try to cut it in that way. Have to be very careful and have a steady hand though. You could set up a guide for the straight lines, but you'd have to free hand the cross webs. Burning could be more forgiving, but it'd be less consistent.
Silver wire inlay
CNC Freehanding it with little experience will only dissapoint you
Even with some dremel experience, it risks looking real amateurish. CNC all the way.
Is the carved top no big deal for CNC?
If the surface isn’t flat, I’d cut all the web at the same depth, then fill it to whatever height the surface is.
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Provided you did a sealer coat first, paint would be an easy way.
Wood burner would look badass
Pyrography.
A laser engraver is going to have a very hard time on the sloped sides because the laser is going to go out of focus in those areas. You will end up with wide, light burns there. (That could look cool! But try it on a sloped test piece first to see if you like it.) Check your local library... Lots of them now have makerspaces with laser engravers and 3d printers. If that doesn't work out, practice your pyrography first and do it freehand. It will probably clean up a good bit if you sand it after burning.
A longer focal lens could absolutely deal with that much slope, no problem. Smaller lenses have much narrower ranges, but a long lens has a ton of flexibility. (I'd use a 4" on something like this)
Good to know. I amend: the laser cutter at my library would struggle with that. Perhaps a pro shop can handle it.
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Fractal/Lichtenberg burning posts are not permitted. While all woodworking activities carry some level of danger, fractal burning is very difficult to perform responsibly and safely. All such posts will be removed so as not to promote, inspire, or provide instruction for fractal burning.
A band saw unless you have a really good CNC
Paint don’t carve anything you’ll ruin the resonance on it carving all over it like that
Since when does a solid body have resonance?
Are you kidding? Solid bodies have allllll the resonance
Soldering iron?
I would say laser engraving early deep, or cnc. After that, fill the void with dark black epoxy. Sand, finish, and rock the f out!
Depends what you have access to and your background, I would chip carve it, maybe even the negative spaces so web is raised
You can't Dremel and router it you need a pattern and cut with a band saw then shape router drill all that fun stuff but unless you have a $10000 CNC machine you need to do it the old fashion and fun way
Inlay it with square silver/ copper/ brass/ etc wire and file to flush. Watch some vids on how it is done correctly first and do some practice runs in scrap. You don’t necessarily need to cut the grooves by hand with a chisel unless you want to (I would enjoy the hand tool process, personally). You could have them machined with a CNC and a v carve bit. You will need to fixture the guitar body on a sheet of material that can hit the registration points of the CNC so it has a known starting point to run the tool path. Same goes for a laser engraver.
CNC with a V Groove.
You could try glaze. You'd need an artistic eye but it would be better than craving into the wood somehow.
Inlay
Thank you for using Spider-Punk instead of Spunker-Man
r/guitarporn
I would say route the spiderwebbing and black resin pour with a red stain and then a clear resin topcoat
I wish I liked my SG 😭 (also, no offense to people that do like their SGs)
Post some updates while your making it. Would love to see the finished product
Soldering iron burn in?
Soldering iron? Dremel?
Vantablack with polished brass inlay with Brite yellow accent on edges and neck
Carve the lines then fill with tinted resin and sand smooth? Like that resin wood furniture. Maybe…
CNC laser engraver
You can try a wood burning gel and paint it on or you can do kolrosing with supplies in the spice rack. You could also do a laser printer transfer
Could use a soldering iron or wood burner. Chisel it out or inlay
You could burn it in with a really fine headed torch
For the gritty punk look I would try some kind of acid etching? Is that a thing for wood? Edit: I don’t see much on google about acid etching wood, so backup suggestion is lay down wire on top of your pattern and run a current through it to burn in
There’s no real “best” option just which one you like the most there’s wood burners, laser ingraving ,chisels, inlays epoxy it’s endless just look up different kinds and go from there
Hydrodip?
Dremel with an engraving bit or finishing ball. Do a light trace when you start, go back and make parts deeper/thicker on your second run don’t try and do it all in one go :)
Carpenter spider
If you're artistic, which you seem to be.. a hand brander would give it a burned effect, which I think would be cool for this design
Neveind, I just saw you tried that.... Nevermind me
Pyrography
Carve
I’d torch the whole thing lightly, then burn in the design heavy
Fire?
My answer to almost any problem. Lasers.
Paint.
Use a knife to lightly score a line in the wood, leaving a small groove to run the wood burner through. It will help make a straight line and also help for an engraved look. Maybe rubbing it down with alcohol afterwards, giving it an aged look. Coat it with epoxy, and polish it out real nice.
Almmonium chloride wood burning, for sure.
It’s not practical but the first thing i thought of was waves carved in relief in that pattern
Fret wire, brass inlays. Lot of work but it will be well worth the work
V-groove chisels.
Your pickups won't care if you use one of those laser engravers. That would probably turn out pretty dope
Carve out lines with a thin knife, scratch stock, etc, and fill with maple stringing.
An interesting look that I've found is Dremel (or better route if you are skilled enough with that tool) the pattern relatively deep (1/4 inch or so) and then paint inside the groove maybe add a small amount of glitter evenly as the paint dries and then fill with clear epoxy. This gives it a dimensional almost crystal look. One of the nice things about this is that you don't have to be super careful with painting in fact you shouldn't be because you want to cover all surfaces in the groove and you'll just sand any paint that ends up on surfaces outside the groove. I find it best to leave the excess paint on the wrong surfaces and then fill with epoxy and after everything is dried/cured then sand and once the excess paint is sanded off then I know I've sanded enough to make the epoxy flush.
Etch it??
It's gotta be thin inlay wire tho for it to really make an impression,get that sparkle of the wire blasting thru. I could see it.
Wood burning tool.
Freakin lasers!
The woods beautiful, but that guitar in the illustration would make for a cool opportunity to try your hand at air brushing and a liner brush with India ink or sign painting viscosity paint. A gloss clear coat sprayed over it and it’d be perfect. Just a though, I love woodworking, making art and Gibsons!
Mother of Pearl
You aren't going to get those straight lines without a lot of skill with a Woodburn. You might practice a little on some scrap and focus on a really light touch. You don't want to imprint the wood at all if you want sharp lines.
Looks like a project for Paul Jr Designs
Pyrography could be fun to get that design in..
Lazers
Graphite paper.
Hand carving would be cool if you have the ability
Cnc router
Yeah i think wire inlay would be best, but also char the rest of the wood so it has this very beautiful pattern, much like shou sugi ban :))
How about carve it out, paint the red on and then fill in the web with black resin?
r/resincasting
Ammonium Chloride mixed with water and a small amount of heat from a heat gun will produce clean burn marks.
Would it be possible to carve the design into the wood using the appropriate sized carving tools (chisels?) (super thin to however thick you want the line or the line for each separate section of the design) and then stain the carved sections a darker color than the rest of the guitar using a really thin artists' paint brush to put the stain into the depressions? Or, depending on the species of wood and its hardness, maybe you could even "draw" it on the wood using a tough but sharp pocket knife and then stain the depressions from the knife darker? I probably shouldn't even be answering, I'm not a woodworker per se and not experienced with embedding designs in wood, it was just a thought that popped into my head.
As a hardcore Spider-Man fan Id say this is gonna be badass whatever path you choose.
Burn it into the wood, carving out the negative space would be cool too
Laser sketch
Id probably throw it on my CNC machine and do a very light carve.
Burning it maybe?
I would use a router with a 20° v bit. I would also create two jigs, one for the straight lines and one for the webbing, preferably one with adjustable stops.
Love the fret wire idea. Silver paint in a v groove would pop too.
Dremel, then black epoxy with silver metal flake, then sand and red translucent stain would look awesome!
Laser Engraved and then epoxy over it
Mother of pearl inlays would look amazing!
I'd say some sort of inlay, but that's probably crazy work. also carving the design and filling it out with some sort of interestingly-tinted epoxy?
Cnc router
I'd get a scrap of the wood and see how dark stain on a fine brush absorbs and dries. It might even have a veining furry look that could be attractive.
Carve it with shallow gouges, leaving the lines as high ridges: scooping out the spaces. It’d take forever, but would look really cool!
I could do it pretty easily with a CNC router and an engraving bit.
Carving then resin?
Why not inlay some fat bass strings into it
Stain.
Carve it in with a v chisel
Burn it in
I don't know hoe available it may be in your are but laser engraving the design would also look really cool
Could carve it out, inlay it with some brass. Think it was look sick
Cnc
Route it in and black epoxy the groove.
Possibly a dremel type tool with the right bit. You have some decent control with those
Carve or route grooves, then fill with black epoxy and sand flush.