Inlay head scratcher

Easel Easel Pro
1

Hello all,

I’m jumping back in attempting inlays, and have a head-scratcher, hopefully this is an easy one for one or more of you.

I am making a simple trivit as a gift for Thanksgiving. Bamboo trivit with walnut inlay. I did the negative by selecting “clear pocket”, I did the positive by selecting “carve to the outside” (in my logic, I think that is how to carve the lettering so that it will fill the pocket, feel free to correct me if this is incorrect).

Now for the head-scratcher; how do I ALSO care away the background so that only the letters and the design remain at 0" cut, and EVERYTHING else gets cut to .2"

here is the project (ignore frame #1, that is just the design, frame #2 is the negative - or pocket, and frame #3 is the positive - or inlay):

suggestions, ideas, wisdom to share??

any guidance would be greatly appreciated (the internet is full of videos of people doing inlay carves like this, but I cannot find one of anyone doing the software (easel) side of it so as to instruct the machine HOW to cut it).

Thanks all!

Joe

2

Make a rectangle that cuts to your depth and set the other stuff to a depth of zero.

3

Thanks Neil,

I on the surface, your solution appears to be a valid one. But it doesn’t appear to work. If you open my project and look at the ‘positive’ carve the following will make more sense.

Two problems that I need to overcome in order to use that solution; 1) if you look at the text, notice that the negative carves the pocket. So at a glance, that appears fine. However, I presume (perhaps incorrectly) that I need to carve “on the inside” in order for the negative carve to ‘fit’ into the pocket. HOWEVER, when I chose cut ‘on the inside’ it DOES NOT make a solid letter, rather just a line around the outside of the letter. What I need is an option to carve everything EXCEPT the pocket,

AND 2) have enough of an off-set so as to allow the positive carve to fit into the negative cut (pocket).

If there were an option added to the list of four that says “carve all EXCEPT the pocket” and allow the user to adjust the tolerance, that would be the most obvious solution. But this does not exist.

I have watched dozens (maybe even hundreds now) of YouTube videos of people making inlays like I am trying to do. This means that I am not trying to do the impossible. Trouble is that none of those users are using an X-Carve Pro with Easel, and most do not even include information as to how they designed the carves, so they are entertaining but not informative.

I know that this is a user issue (This user (me) does not know what the hell he is doing), and I’m sure that this simple process can be done, I just have no clue how to get ‘THERE’.

4

The surface appearance is what matters on an inlay! :wink:

image
image1741×909 124 KB

You’re using a 30deg v-bit…if you adjust the Z0 on your male inlay, an offset is not needed. Set your Z0 at a depth you want the inlay to insert into the pocket.

5

Thank you Neil,

I have to digest this. I’ll be in the shop this afternoon and will experiment.

Question; in the image above the positive (inlay - right) looks like the reverse of the negative (pocket - left), as opposed to what it looks like on my original (I used cut inside path). This is what caused me consternation, because the letters are not ‘solid’. Did you change it? I ask because your version looks correct. If so, did you choose ‘clear pocket’?

I have other questions, but I will play with this first so that I can ask said questions in a clear and intelligible way.

I appreciate the help.

(If anyone considers starting “Easel classes” I’d be interested. The learning curve for EVERYTHING that I do is becoming troublesome.)

6

Hi Joe,

Have you ever found Paw Paw’s Workshop on YouTube? He has done lots of videos of different things to do using Easel, including inlays:

7

Thank you Jordan.

I tried using the inlay generator ap a year ago and found that it worked well for solid pieces like what he has here, but it did not work for detailed inlay wherein it remains as one piece (raised txt / images) that is inlaid and then planed down to the surface.
To be honest, it’s been a year (and a hectic one at that), and so I do not remember what the issue/s was/were. So, I’ll have to go make some more sawdust and firewood as I refresh my memory as to what the limitations were so as to ask more intelligent questions.