VCarve Inlay Question

[Vfxdaddy]

So today I thought I was good to go when I cut the pocket for my inlay. Well I had forgot my computer restarted itself and I knew I should have checked everything but I didn’t. Is there any formula for cutting a Inlay plug when your pocket settings are set up like this?

[FixitMike]

Yes. For the inlay, a start depth of .07 will give you a .03 gap for glue, and a flat depth of .25 will give you a gap of .15 between the pieces when glued in place. You can sand or plane off an extra .1" (The start depth) if you want an exact model.

Think of it this way. Your base start depth of .1 means you have the correct image .1 below the surface. An inlay start depth of .07 means the inlay sticks that far beyond the correct image into the base, leaving .03 for the glue. You only have to increase the inlay flat depth enough to go more than the .1 base flat depth to provide separation between the flat planes of the pieces.

I've added the extra material in blue to my diagram to show what happens when you have a base start depth other than 0. The "sanded off" note applies if you want the result be exactly like the original vectors.

[FixitMike]

You only have to increase the inlay flat depth enough to go more than the .1 base flat depth to provide separation between the flat planes of the pieces.

Should be:
You only have to increase the inlay flat depth enough to go more than the .1 base start depth to provide separation between the flat planes of the pieces.

[martin54]

Just to add to what Mike has already said, when cutting inlays I was told to always cut the male part first, then once the pocket has been cut you can test fit while the stock for pocket is still on the machine, if you don't have a good fit then you can make adjustments, re run the pocket toolpath & try again

[Vfxdaddy]

Thanks guys it cut out ok other then it ran it in two passes and left a lip so I had to remove that and I don’t have the facial details. Do I need to sand that down for those to show up? I cut a new one and it’s drying now but I cut it the correct way so we will see if the details show up there or if I did it completely wrong.

[martin54]

Once glued & dried you would remove the excess male material until it was flush with the female top surface If you have a lot of fine detail & parts of the male portion have chipped or been torn off during machining then you will have a few missing bits

If your inlay has very fine detail then you may find you need to slow the machine down when cutting the male part to avoid this, really best to do a few inlays that don't have to much fine detail first just to get the hang of things

[DLWOODWORKS]

Yes. For the inlay, a start depth of .07 will give you a .03 gap for glue, and a flat depth of .25 will give you a gap of .15 between the pieces when glued in place. You can sand or plane off an extra .1" (The start depth) if you want an exact model.

Think of it this way. Your base start depth of .1 means you have the correct image .1 below the surface. An inlay start depth of .07 means the inlay sticks that far beyond the correct image into the base, leaving .03 for the glue. You only have to increase the inlay flat depth enough to go more than the .1 base flat depth to provide separation between the flat planes of the pieces.

I've added the extra material in blue to my diagram to show what happens when you have a base start depth other than 0. The "sanded off" note applies if you want the result be exactly like the original vectors.

VCarve Inlay mod.png

Mike,

I'm about to start an inlay project using walnut and curly maple. Walnut is the base and curly maple will be the inlay. I see numbers floating around like .16, .1, .17, etc. for the start depth of the inlay I know these are based on the thickness of the two blanks, as stated in your tutorial for vcarve inlay. I want to resaw the curly maple into 1/4" pieces then edge glue these together to make my blank for the male portion. Curly maple is expensive and valuable. I'd like to make the female portion of the inlay about .1875" deep. Then cut the curly to fit that depth. Again, less curly maple the better. I prefer not to have to hog a bunch of curly maple off after the inlay is put in place. I'll use the CNC to hog most of what's left off, then run it through a wide belt sander to finish it. The inlay is not complicated and has no tight areas, like stars, etc. It has square corners on one end of the inlay and a 2.5" radius for the corners on the other end.

My question is, how do you compute the amount of start depth for the male portion of the inlay so you get a nice tight fit (I'll use a vacuum clamp) when you force the pieces together?

The overall size of the base (walnut) will be 40" long x 26" wide. There will be one curly maple inlay 30.5" long x 14" wide that will be inlayed into the walnut.

Thanks,

Don

[FixitMike]

If the flat depth of the female is .1875, I would use a start depth for the male that is about .04 less which would make .15 what I would use.

But with that much fancy material involved, I would see if there were some extra pieces that I could try a sample inlay on first.

[DLWOODWORKS]

Yeah, it is expensive material. I am going to try some experiments before committing to the real thing. Practice, practice, practice till I get it right.

I will use your suggestions as a starting point.

Thanks Mike.