Vectric Customer

Also maybe to speed up testing, try using medium CA only on the female(do the edges and usually enough flows down to do the flat).
Make sure you dry fit and draw pencil marks on corners, plus one for reference, as open time is like 15 seconds.
Leave clamped with the Male side down so any glue goes on waste.
Usually 1 hour clamped does it, and had no failures on the ones I did 2 years ago, even though they've been dropped and banged around a little with major temp changes.
scott

Greg,

If you still have gaps on your latest try, you might want to use a trammel to be sure your cutter is perpendicular to the bed.

Paul Z

Thanks for the reply's guys!!

Just got home from the day job and ran out to the shop. Using a dial indicator and the trammel method .....

The cutter is off from perpendicular to the bed by 0.13 degrees. That should be good enough. I could dial it in, if need be.

Will try another test with new settings (Female - 0,300" flat / Male - 0.150" start and 0.150" flat) tomorrow.

I'm having a hard time understanding how my setting (Female - 0.300" flat / Male - 0.200" start and 0.100" flat) could results in the gaps I'm seeing. Drew it up in CAD and it's such a forgiving method.

Very interesting issue. Always amazes me what one learns from problems.

Its a full moon, back out to the shop

Greg: I would recommend a male start depth that is only slightly less than the female flat depth. the difference is an internal gap, possibly for excess glue. A larger difference means you will have an internal hollow of that depth.

Thanks FixitMike,

That's what been bugging me. I agree with what your saying. My setting (Male - .200" start / .100" flat) should be working. The Female is set at .300" flat.

If I make the Male start .250" and the flat .050", then I will have a small gap between parts.

I'm gonna run into the hardware store and get some CA glue. Make up several test inlays and slice apart to see what the heck is going on.

FYI: when I make an inlay with a straight bit (1/4" end mill), its perfect. Maybe the X and Y axis is fine and the Z axis is acting up . . . . . . . . . hmmmmm

Show pics when you slice them.
I only dissected one when it was clamped crooked, so no good for real world testing.
scott

Had to glue up some more inlay material and cutting blocks first, but here's the first test

Star pattern, Female - Start = 0.000", Flat = 0.300" / Male - Start = 0.200", Flat = 0.100"
Fits like a glove. No 0.100" gap. Interesting.

Attached is the VCarve file. I save as 4 cut files. 1 female clearing (1/4" end mill). 1 female vbit. 1 male clearing (1/4" end mill). and 1 male vbit.
What the heck am I not understanding?

What are you using for hold downs for the male piece? How thick is the original material? Is it possible that the male piece is pulling up, warping or otherwise moving while it is being cut? This would explain why only parts of the cut are not lining up properly. And why your thicker, less detailed star worked better.

Mobius,

For the Elk Inlay, I'm using 1/2" thick walnut end grain. I make up an end grain block and slice off 5/8" thick pieces and glue up. Sand down (drum sander) to 1/2" thick inlay material.

I'm holding the inlay material down with screws and clamps.

what I don't understand with the star test, is why don't I have a 0.100" gap?

Not a 100%, but about 95%. Still some small gaps. Could have played with different settings, but just ran out of time. Overnighting to WY for fund raiser.

Basically, everything, the base material and inlay needed to be flat. I thought that the drum sander was flat enough, but it wasn't. Used end mill and milled every surface flat and parallel to the cutter.

More to come.

I've tried this process a couple of times with limited success, mostly because I haven't focused on it. But I now have a project I want to do using the method. The thought crossed my mind about using the "model position in material" instead of changing the "start depth." It's probably the same result but it's less confusion for me. Any reason why using the "start depth" value in the "model position in material" wouldn't work?

10 years and 1/8 million hits. How time flies.

Only when you're having fun Paul!
THANKS!
scott

Monster thread, will take a while to digest some info.

I have been trying to think up ways to maintain sharp corners, looks like the info is right here if I can translate it to my brain.

Been browsing through the thread, about page 5 or so reference is made to a pdf instruction document, haven't been able to find it is it still here somewhere ?