Paul and Damien's Vinlay

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Originally Posted by scottp55

Scott, Make sure you post pics of crib boards, still remember that beautiful one that had Sassafras and the magnets. Never thought I could do stuff like that, but now it makes sense. :)

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I will if I ever get done, brother.
I'll send you the files if you like. They'd be a nightmare to figure out, but if you made your own toolpaths it'd be pretty easy. Or not. :)

Edit:
I just looked at the zebra.
Ya know how the bit chucked a few of the real soft, short pieces, Scott? I can usually get them to stay by sneaking up on them. Rather than getting down to the flat depth in one or two passes, I'll go down in two mildly aggressive passes, then do the last pass real thin, like a tenth or less.
You'll have to play with that process to see what works best for the size of your model and the softness of your wood. You can actually test on just part of the zebra, the really short bits. That way you can run a number of tests in a real short period of time.
Remember what I mentioned about the patience part? Yeah, it's a real challenge. :D
You're still going to lose some short bits because of grain voids. In those cases, wood filler is your friend. I xacto out the glue and lay it in. Then I stain the inlay with something light so it hides the putty. That way I'm the only one who can see it. :)

Thanks Scott, No thanks on the files--I seem to be into making my own mistakes at the moment :)
On Zebra 1, That was the one I totally mucked up the cut file, by leaving flat depth for inlay the same as the inlay pocket. Duh! I'm surprised it even survived.
Zebra 2 is cutting now, and inlay path is correct. Fingers crossed.
Yeah, thought of you mentioning patience while cutting down:) treating it super gently, but the wood wasn't there to begin with. CA/epoxy and sawdust coming up.

I've been messing around with shortening the flat depth for the pocket, Scotty.
The male pieces I'm still making .2", but the pockets I've shrunk to .225.
Reason being, on the cribbage boards, I cut out the backside for storage and I need all the depth I can get. That .1" void is just for catching glue, and I don't even get close to filling it.
So when I cut out the backside, I can get to the void. And when I drill the peg holes, more void problems.
I'd like to continue to mess around till I get that depth just right so there's no void at all. Just a tiny bit for glue, maybe.
I'd also like to get a press to crank these inlays in. I've made jigs and all sorts of stuff for clamping, but the male pieces still like to rock sometimes.

Mind ya, I'm doing much bigger areas, but I thought it'd be nice to get your head in it with me. :)
I'd like to inlay desk tops and I've thought of a number of ways to make the frame for cutting out the male inlay, but my table being only 50" long, I don't even want to begin trying to index an inlay. I'd screw that up something awful.
But the frame idea would work within the confines of my bot table, so I can use it on all kinds of other furniture.
I'd just like to get all the kinks worked out, that's why all the cribbage boards and stuff. Gotta walk before you can run. :)

Scott, Way I'm doing the cuts now, There shouldn't BE a gap. Working on settings some people from Vectric gave me and the way the Vectric tutorial shows. Using Rockler CA Medium right now, strictly to be able to try different cuts and bits fairly fast. Still will try TBI and II, and might experiment with heat thinned epoxy that was recommended to try. This board turned into a project instead of a throw away test piece. Did try to fly instead of crawling by giving a maple zebra inlay piece a red ochre alcohol wash and touching with a 1"brush oxidizing flame to eliminate fuzzies and give it a "Toasted" color. OF Course it didn't FIT! To many variables to pin it down,but was probably the MC change with the flame(could have been 30F/30% humidity change in the 48hours since carved-alcohol-OR flame) Recommend doing everything the same day like Paul recommended.
Will do some samples in scrap probably tomorrow with 3 different glues and settings to experiment with faster trimming of waste and then cross sectioning so I can SEE whats going on.
Monty, Yes, rastering with grain with FEM LH until about .02" above surface and then a 320G Abralon on ROsander with a soft pad(medium or hard might be better). Good idea to have wood surface for female surface by machine and sanded beforehand to appropriate grit, as if you sand later things like pinion feathers and other very fine stuff will disappear on you. Abralon doesn't seam clog up as easy. Thinned lacquer does seem to make a difference on tear out when doing things like the zebra and seems to make the CA darkening of the wood almost go away.

Scott, let me know how the "no gap" thing works out.
I've thought about getting that close, but as thick as my glue is, I need some room underneath.
I did try a real close one before and when I made it up I could see a glue line the whole way around the inlay. That's not what I'm after at all, I'm sure you can imagine.
That's what got me thinking about getting a press. They're only about $159 at Harbor Freight. I just don't have anywhere to put it, and I don't think Miss Lisa will let me put it in the kitchen.

Scott,

I'm going to be your dad for a minute ...

"Quit playing with those inlays and do some real work":D:D

Paul Z

Cute Paul:D BUT I HAVE to surface off that "twig" I used to "butterfly" that stupid piece of walnut First! First one I've glued with TBI. Will have been clamped for 24hrs at 2PM. THEN I can do REAL WORK. It happens to be inlaying maple "Gingerich Wood" into Flat/stable Black Walnut in 3" Vivaldi :):)

Pictures please Scott.... I am waiting with bated breath.

It would be an inside joke to use a butterfly inlay as a butterfly joint.

I also wait with earthworm on tongue ("baited breath").

Monty, Best pics showing process and explaining is still the Vectric forum thread. Here's a few more not posted. Went overboard with CA(Rockler Medium- Think Thick might be better, but not sure, as I don't have any yet-Paul?) as I wanted to see if I could get the "gleam" that was in the original Zebras eyeball in the .EPS. Went much faster skimming this time as I took .05" passes with a .25"LH FEM Down. Made a mistake by trying a Vector pocket (starting in center)so I could stay with a conventional cut and all went well until pocket reached Zebra 2's nose and right side of pocket ripped the last 1/4" of waste and took the tip of his nose with it. Did NOT reach into the inlay material though. I was told on Vectric forum, you can skim down to .002-.004" on flat material and then 2 grits and you're done! But this board is Alive and you can see I'm nowhere near flat. Think CA would have behaved better, but used my Record V175 vise and gravity took it's toll.
Paul!, Heinlein said that the quality of a pun can be told by the Magnitude of the GROAN! You probably felt it in NH and thought it was a 3.1 :)
I was following YOUR advice and trying to make sure I could reach every bolt for my Z-Upgrade with the wrenches I bought today/ designing 4 new Celtic buttons(Dad wants 20 new designs by 10/1)/and finish sanding the Font demo board so I can ship it! Thanks:)
Funny your pun was about fishing, as Dads bookeeper's husband (Mo) has been helping us out with graphics. He's a retired M. Eng. who rebuilt a Vacuum furnace for Dads company a few years back so they could CNC Lithium. Pic shows his first and second attempt to draw a "Grey Ghost" for the top of our fishing fly boxes. I carved simply so he could understand VCarving and he would FAINT if he saw I posted them:) We bought him some calligraphy felt tips and he's gotten MUCH better. Mo is coming Weds AM to carve a few of his new vector graphics and MAY try to carve and inlay the "Grey Ghost" which will certainly put the Zebra to shame.
"Twig" is still clamped as I never got to it. Thought about Butterfly "Butterfly" but almost out of thin acclimatized stock, and these Birdseye Maple rips are only .12" wide so had to go with a beefy thin shape.
scott