Zank Inlay sign

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laflippin
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Zank Inlay sign

Post by laflippin »

For an upcoming arts & crafts fair that may, or may not, be coming up in my locale in October.

The plank is 11.5” x 36” x 1.5” redwood. Text and border are white pine, Egyptian symbols are purpleheart, my signature is wenge.
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TomWS
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by TomWS »

The white pine shows up nicely! Thanks for that!
Not to nit pick, but to learn, it seems as if there was some breakout of the white male inlay on the lower right side. What's your assessment? Maybe Z error over the length of the piece?

laflippin
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by laflippin »

You’ve got a good eye, Tom…I wouldn’t call it nit-picking at all. One of the thin, shallow bits of pine inlay did indeed tear out while I was removing waste-backing with an angle grinder fitted with a 36-grit carborundum wheel. I am planning to remediate that error by hand—I.e., dig out the groove with dental tools and then use an Exacto knife to fashion a new pine splinter to glue in place. I’ll post the result in this thread when it’s done.

As to the original cause of the weakness in that piece of inlay, I’d say you probably nailed it—I had planed the redwood board for this project but then it sat around in the shop for a few weeks. As I’m sure you are aware, redwood can be pretty warpy (if that’s a real word) and even a small Z-error over the distance from center to that corner could have weakened that bit of inlay.

I guess one learning for future projects analogous to this one might be, sacrifice some delicacy in the fine detail in order to get a deeper, less fragile inlay. I’d definitely be interested to hear other general ideas about avoiding tear-out, since it does happen and if it’s serious enough it can ruin a long, difficult project right at the end…where it hurts the most. When that happens it’s something like the feeling of being up 19 to 17 in the 4th quarter with 5 seconds on the clock, starting to celebrate, only to see the opposing team kick a 62-yard field goal to win it as the clock expires. Grrrrrr. Wailing and gnashing of teeth…..

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TomWS
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by TomWS »

On a long board, ISTM, that there are two possible approaches. The first is to surface the face before cutting the female side. Presumably that will flatten any warpage in the short term. If the male side is thin enough, and its face is flattened before cutting, then clamping should take care of any subsequent warp of the male part.

The alternative might be to segment the piece into shorter segments, zeroing out each segment before they're cut. I would think that judicious selection of segments would hide any seams in the female part and, again, if the male is relatively thin, then heavy clamping would remove any warp on that side.

Dunno, I won't be in a position to try my hand at inlay for a couple of weeks (still in my Summer digs). I've been amazed at what you've been able to accomplish and it's an inspiration to me to give it a go! Keep it up!

laflippin
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by laflippin »

Segmenting the male pieces into smaller jobs might have been a very good strategy for the border art on that sign. Instead, I took the lazy way—crammed as much into each discrete glue-up step as possible—and so I have to consider myself lucky that only one small, non-fatal tear-out occurred.
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laflippin
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by laflippin »

Re: Off-line conversation w/ TomWS about using poplar in Zank Inlay

Freshly milled poplar can often fill the need for green-colored wood in Zank Inlay projects. If the project is finished with UV-resistant polyurethane and not left exposed to direct sunlight for lengthy periods of time, I’ve found that poplar’s color is stable for at least 4 years (and counting). Two examples are shown:
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DD69B765-7425-4996-AB84-24569D839601.jpeg

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scottp55
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by scottp55 »

Nice Lee (love the name!) :)
And even a Cat:)

"Warpy" is a good word!
One of my original mess ups was bringing wood in from non-heated garage, and surfacing after 2 days!
Now wood comes into house/shop at Least 2 weeks before cutting! :oops:
Segmenting long stuff works well..or if not, then doing it all in one day works well too.

Surfaced some "Green", and just oiled it and left in sun...6 months now and it's "Chocolate Brown" :(
UV protection sounds like a must.
You still having Green pulled out for you from Ocooch?

Good Work Lee!! :)
scott
I've learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone,so you have to please yourself
R.N.

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TomWS
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by TomWS »

Thanks @laflippin, that should work nicely... UV blockers will be ok for this project.
Now all I need to do is fix up all the vectors and mill some wood. Oh yeah, I suppose I need to return from my Summer digs too...

@scottp55, you're very right about acclimating wood before machining and assembling right away after machining! As a woodturner I know the downside of removing a lot of wood from a not-dry piece!

laflippin
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by laflippin »

Thanks for the kind words, Scott, as always.

It’s been almost a year since I last bought a stack of poplar stock from Ocooch but they were certainly very helpful about selecting extra green boards for me that time, and the time before that which was several years ago. They seem very motivated to help their clients find exactly what they are looking for. Just got a delivery from them last week—some really beautiful zebra wood, some more wenge, and some stunning canary wood.

Glad you like my corporate logo, Scott!😄 I was playing around with a take-off of one of Mel Brooks’ jokes from Spaceballs…..Light Puttering->Ridiculous Puttering->Ludicrous Puttering when I thought of it. (If you’ve never seen Spaceballs, you’ll have to watch it to get the joke). For awhile I was going to go with “Ludicrous Puttering” but eventually decided that the contrast between puttering and extremism was funnier—and maybe closer to the mark for a Zank Inlay hobbyist.
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scottp55
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by scottp55 »

Better than "Extremely Time Consuming Putzing" Lee! :)

STILL haven't done a multi-wood yet...
Maybe when I stop making Extremely Time Consuming multiple Tinys. :)

Ocooch was always good to us for"scroll saw ready" thin stock when they called back!! :)
scott
I've learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone,so you have to please yourself
R.N.

laflippin
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by laflippin »

Yet another great line from Spaceballs: “Go back to the golf course and work on your putz, Doctor!”😄

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scottp55
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Re: Zank Inlay sign

Post by scottp55 »

"Putzing" and "Tweaking" are two of my favorite things nowadays Lee! :)
Haven't seen the movie even. :)

Spent about 9 hrs cutting 4 toolpaths yesterday,and then went to put together my 89yr old Mom's new excercyle she bought herself with Schwinn instructions that May have come from China! :)

Except for good Mom time....I'd rather do 9 hrs of cutting!!! :)
I remember ''68 Honda instructions like;
"Please to make carburetor laugh"
(translation.....Tickle the carburetor) :)

Can't wait to "Putz" again!! :)
Maybe even a multi-wood Zank VInlay :)
I've learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone,so you have to please yourself
R.N.

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