Trouble with Inlays

[Proflemoi]

Hello all,

I have been working with VCarve Pro for well over a year and a half and have made several inlays. Of late I have been having a problem getting the Male inlay to fit properly into the pocket. I can't figure out why. I have followed the procedure I found in the PDF tutorial by Paul Zank to the letter... but still I am not achieving a proper fit. The male inlay is about 3/16th proud of joining flat to the pocket. This means that the angled cuts are not in contact and thus leave a large gap where the 2 should join. On a recent project I had to adjust my Z Depth deeper to take off more material to get it close. The problem with that is I end up with a point at the bottom of the male inlay rather than a nice flat surface to glue to the female and do not achieve a perfect tight fit to the edges. I wonder what I could possibly be doing wrong?

More info:

I am using a 60d vbit. I use the same vbit for both the make and female.
I am using a .25EM to clear out the large flat areas to save time.
I am following the Zank Guide to the letter.
I am running a probotics Asteroid CNC.

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Prof L

[Mark's Wood Chips]

Prof:

I don't believe that the top of the male touches the bottom of the inlay pocket, rather there should be room for glue squeeze out. The sides of the inlay parts are what holds them together when glued. The male should sit proud when pressed together allowing it to be sawed off prior to flush sanding.

Mark

[FixitMike]

The top will touch when you have narrow lines, but not where you have a flat bottom. I will sand off the sharp points of the inllay except where the pattern is a narrow line. Be sure to pick out any wood specks remaining in the female cut valleys.

For the inlay, the start depth is how far the inlay sticks into the female cut. I usually make it .03"-- .06" less than the flat depth of the female cut. The flat depth provides an air space between the pieces (for glue squeeze out) when they are pressed together.

Be sure that the inlay is cut free of the surrounding pocket border. I sometimes cut it into separate pieces for convenience while gluing.

[Paul Z]

Mark and Mike are spot on correct. There should be a gap which allows clamping to force out excess glue and deform the parts to minimize any gaps. That's why there is much emphasis on clamp, clamp, and clamp some more.

Paul Z

[Mark's Wood Chips]

Here is a photo of a hummingbird inlay using Paul Zank's instructions modified slightly:
60 degree "V" cutter
Pocket - Start 0", Flat 0.1"
Inlay - Start 0.07", Flat 0.09"

Cleaned up the fuzzies, spread glue, assembled, and (get this) squeezed in a 20 ton shop press. Lots of pressure (probably 1 or 2 tons).

I was amazed at the absolutely perfect definition of the long narrow beak, the tiny foot and some of the tiny feathers. The edges are as crisp as a printed piece of art. I have a drum sander so I was able to adjust the depth of surface finishing by thousandths of an inch until it looked perfect.

Mark

[dwilli9013]

Very Nice.
Thanks for the tip on the shop press. Never thought to use my bearing press for inlay work. That works a lot better than stacking weights on top of it. (although I could use the exercise)

[Proflemoi]

All of your points are well taken and something i have done in practice. The issue is that the male portion is so high that when I glue it in place I only get a VERY thin piece of the wood touching the boarders....so I have to push my Z level even lower when I cut the male piece to get more contact with the boarders... I too have made absolutely perfect inlays in the past that were amazingly accurate and perfect fits... just can't seem to figure what is happening now...

[FixitMike]

Does this help?