Cutting Boards with Inlays

[mfirlott]

I finally was able, after lots and lots of testing, to get my Zank V-Inlay parameters down pat and have had great success.

Here are a few recent cutting boards I've done using Zank. They are all approximately 15" x 11" x 1 1/4".

[TReischl]

Those look really good.

[Daniel S]

Very cool... beautiful work. I'm trying to get my Stinger skill to your level some day.
Dan

[Tailmaker]

Man, these are way too pretty to use...excellent work!

[Charlie_l]

Mitch,
Really nice work.
Are you ready to share your learnings along the way?
What is your favorite strategy?

[Rcnewcomb]

I encourage people new to CNC to try these types of projects. The process is straightforward and it helps you learn the capabilities and idiosyncrasies of your machine. The multi-wood inlays really highlight the skill of the operator.

[mfirlott]

Thanks ALL for the kind words. It has been quite the journey with lots of testing starting with small images into small blocks of wood as I refined my parameters. And like Randall said...I too encourage others to try this and putting a picture into wood using different species gives me a chill of success. It's so nice when done. And the last one (Kissy Lips), although in the end was pretty easy, took me a bit of time to plan it out to get the maple outline then the walnut lips.

Charlie...I shared my process recently in another post. Have a look here...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31416&p=266246#p266246

[scottp55]

All of them are Really beautiful Mitch!
STILL haven't done a multi-wood one:(
The Lips are cool, but your layout of the Bare Tree and Moon I Love!
Well Done!
scott

[gkas]

Well, you've darn well figured it out.... Those boards are fantastic. I'm still at the 'inlaid coaster' level. I'm definitely going to do more exploration of the technique. Thanks for showing us.

[Aussie]

I finally was able, after lots and lots of testing, to get my Zank V-Inlay parameters down pat and have had great success.

Here are a few recent cutting boards I've done using Zank. They are all approximately 15" x 11" x 1 1/4".

Very nice indeed.... I have found also using a press does make a big difference.
Looking forward to seeing your next projects.

[gkas]

Very nice indeed.... I have found also using a press does make a big difference.

+1. I made a cheap press out of this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PJ ... UTF8&psc=1 and some scrap wood.

[wilkigr]

Those are all incredible! It seems a shame to score them with knife marks, though.

[mfirlott]

See this video for some serious skills. I'm hoping I can eventually reach this level of skills but I've a long way to go.

This guy (BroinWood) is simply amazing...

[Tom M]

Looks so easy

[aarvidsson]

Right. I've seen EVERY ONE of his videos, and he keeps using the 6.2 degree Amana 46280-S tapered ball nose. I've got one of those, and I've tried every idea I can think of for getting inlays with that cutter to work. I've tried inputting it as a tapered ball endmill. Didn't work. I've tried inputting it as a v-carve bit. It worked - sort of - but the inlay didn't fit snugly and the old adage of "starting depth = the depth of the plug in the hole, flat depth = the length of the plug sticking out" didn't apply. I've tried 12.4 degrees and 6.2 degrees. No dice.
In his comments he has stated he's using Vcarve, he is clearly using the darn cutter and he is equally clearly getting spectacular results. Can anyone think of some other way he might be able to pull this off?