I read the document "VCarve Inlay Description and Procedure" by Paul Zank and Damien Durrant. I first want to say thank you for producing this description that has helped so many, including me, understand how to do this. There is also a lot of good discussion on this thread, and I've read it all. Now that we have some experience with an inlay project, I still have a question.
The document suggests the following depths as a starting point:
Inlay Flat Depth = 0.2”
Inlay Start Depth = 0.1”
Inlay Pocket Flat Depth = 0.3”
According to my calculations, using an inlay start depth of 0.1" means that the smallest part of the inlay would be sized 0.115" larger than the pocket. This means that if a part of the inlay art work is smaller than 0.115" across (almost an eight of an inch), the inlay won't fit in the pocket. We wanted to do a project where some of the of the inlay regions were only 0.05" across, and when we used those dimensions, the 2 pieces wouldn't fit together. By trial and error, I found that using:
Inlay Flat Depth = 0.04”
Inlay Start Depth = 0.16”
Inlay Pocket Flat Depth = 0.2”
worked to have the pieces fit together and retain the small lines. In this case, the 2 pieces fit almost completely tight together. I just posted the pictures of this project on the gallery at the following link. Some of the outline lines are very thin, and these settings seem to work to have them all show up.
http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20152
But some of the pictures in this thread, particularly those of trees, are also very intricate. Some of the trees have very narrow branches. Did you use an inlay flat and start depth of 0.2 and 0.1", respectively, or did you also adjust those values? Of course the dimensions mentioned in the document are just a starting point which will need to be customized for each project, but it would be great to have a discussion of how to set these values for different projects. We sure junked a lot of wood in the process.
Thanks,
--Andy