3D Hickory Plate with Walnut Inlay

Post by **Turtle49** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:50 pm

I just finished this decorative Hickory plate with a Walnut inlay of the tree I use as a logo. It is stained Golden Oak and sealed with "dull-rubbed" lacquer.

Between the roughing and finish passes, and the VCarve time for the inlay, I think it took about 4 hours of cut time. I think I can speed that up some though. The sanding and finishing took about an hour.

I will post the process I used on my website and link back here later.

Tim

Post by **Phil** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:09 pm

Very nice. I like everything about it.

Post by **Turtle49** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:52 pm

Thanks Phil,
It is my first attempt at two sided machining. I did this one to see what the pitfalls were, I plan on doing a couple for gifts later this coming month.

I did learn a couple of things. First I ran the rough cut along the grain with an almost dull 0.5 end mill. In Hickory, that causes some tear out ( I did some filling with epoxy to fix it). Next time I will run the rough cut cross grain.
Second when you flip the material top to bottom to do the reverse side...don't forget to put the carving on the bottom upside down so it matches the top inlay.

Thanks for the feedback,
Tim

Post by **metalworkz** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:24 am

Hi Tim,
Great looking plate! I have not done any inlay work and I'm worndering do you glue the inlay in place and then finish machining that surface afterwards or is it just machined to the same depth as the inlay material and then finish sanded? Thanks!

Post by **Turtle49** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:00 pm

In short these were the steps;

- Run the rough cut on the top of the plate.
- Vcarve the pocket for the inlay, taking into consideration the "Machining allowance" that I set in Cut3D.
- Cut the mating inlay piece, in this case a piece of Walnut.
- Glue it in, and clamp it for about 3 hours.
- Re-run the rough cut on the top of the plate. (this clears off the inlay piece)
- Run the finish cut on the top of the plate.

- Flip and re-index the piece and run the rough cut for the back.
- Run the finish cut for the bottom of the plate.
- Run the VCarve for the HornshawWoodWorks logo.
- Trim tabs and sand, then finish.

Hope this helps,
Tim

Post by **calgrdnr** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:10 pm

Great plate Tim , and thanks for the direction also

Post by **Turtle49** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:39 pm

calgrdnr wrote:Great plate Tim , and thanks for the direction also

No problem, I also listed out the steps in my project archive. You can find it here:
http://www.hornshawwoodworks.com/index.php?var7=143

Thanks,
Tim

Post by **calgrdnr** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:04 am

OK Tim great site.

but this picture has me confused ( I know it is easy thing to do

)

Why am I seeing caving on back side of the walnut ?

thanks for posting the step and easy to follow picture step ( except this step

) If it is explained in the inlay tutorial just tell me to read it

thanks again for the inspiration and knowledge to create a great project

Post by **Turtle49** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:37 pm

Its because I forgot to invert the vectors.

So I flipped the piece and cut it right on the back. No one is perfect!

Tim

Post by **calgrdnr** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:48 pm

Thanks Tim . We all make plenty of mistakes ( at least I do)
I just needed to clarify for my simple mind.

I was afraid I was as dumb as I look

Post by **Turtle49** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:25 pm

I decided to set up a jig to cut these more consistently and also to be able to do two at once.

The two in the picture are for gifts later this month.

Tim

Post by **Turtle49** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:49 pm

I finished another plate. This one is Aspen and is filled with an epoxy mixture.

I got to thinking, what would happen if I mixed epoxy with some sawdust from previous projects.....you know the stuff laying under my router. So I gathered up a little Paduak and walnut...possibly some oak and Hickory.

And this is what I ended up with.

The only issue I ran into, is that there were a few voids after I got it sanded. So I used some red filler to smooth it out.

Also Aspen is a soft wood and is not that great for inlaying.

Tim

Post by **js11110** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:41 pm

Very cool!

Jason

Post by **Thkoutsidthebox** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:07 pm

Those are fantastic. Definately something else to add to my ever lasting 'To-Do' list!

Post by **Turtle49** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:46 pm

Here is my last installment to this run of plates. Its a Ash plate with Walnut inlay. Unfortunately the Walnut had some sap wood in it and faded into the ash plate around the shoulders.

I still think my sister in-law will like it.

Tim