Hello everyone,
in my photo, there are gaps (which I don’t like) and the inlay wood cracked because it did not lay flat as the first cut left longer tips on the letters than the outside cut.
V-Carve inlay process makes it easy, but you need V-Carve Pro. For Easel, I know it is really important to measure your bit. Bits are often not the size they say they are. Also, if you can deep some of the saw dust from the darker wood, you can make a paste with glue and smear it into the cracks.
if you want straight-wall inlays, maybe cut the pocket first with 0.5mm leftover, and then do a final cleaning pass
What I found when I first started, and it looks similar to yours, was that my router was sitting at a slight tilt and I needed to shim it to be perfectly straight up and down. Yours look like they fit on one side but not the other…mine was the same and when I looked close I could see the sides of the cuts were tapered one direction…so under on one side and sticking out on the other…
There is a great tutorial on youtube for inlays.
It talks about fixing areas that do not look as good. Even with experienced folks you will get some imperfections. The trick is to use some of the inlay material and create a filler to hide the cracks etc. I would post the link but I can’t remember it right now. The guy was doing a wood inlay and mixed sawdust from the original wood material with glue and squeezed it into the areas that were bad. After it dried he then sanded it. You almost could not tell it had been a crack or bad area. You can also chisel out bad areas and glue a good piece on top and seal it. Just have to be crafty at it. practice first to get the technique down.
If you are using the inlay app, choose fill for the pocket and On Path for the inlay. You actually don’t need to choose the settings, the app will do it for you. Speed maters as well. If you are too aggressive with your feed/speed you can have variances that differ on certain portions of the inlay because the cutting will flex the machine just slightly.
I do a lot of inlay using easel and the inlay app. Been very happy with the results.
Thanks guys.
I appreciate the help with this learning curve!!
Serge
yeah if you have a gap, fill it with glue and sawdust, it will look almost perfect, at least when the gap wasn’t too large to begin with
I struggled with this for some time what I finally figured out to use easel to use a engraving bit with the v profile .Cut your inlay pocket normal then to cut your inlay flip your item so it cuts in reverse. The idea is you will get a tapered pocket and the inlay with the same taper glue them together sand them flat and you have a perfect fit inlay with no gaps what so ever . If I can figure out how to put pictures on here from my phone I’ll put a few that I have done on here .
Those are really nice using easel. Nice work! You might consider publishing a step by step because a lot of people struggle with this.
I will see what I can do. Never though of doing any tutorials.
I’m working on a video now to explain it in detail.
