Looking for advice on my vcarve inlay

I have done these before and it hasn’t come out this bad, however, I also used different bits and think that might be the issue. What i’d like to understand though, is exactly why this would be happening so I know what to look for or how to prevent it going forward.

On the male inlay portion of the cut, I am getting a small ridge around the inlay itself (after milling away material) and its forcing me to have to go back and clean it all up to be sure i get a proper seat when glueing them together.

My assumption is that the endmill I used .125 is not actually .125 but is slightly off size wise. I am seeing this small lip all away around the cut so I don’t believe its an alignment issue.

Has anyone seen this in the past? Do I need to use my calipers and try to get a more accurate measurement of the endmill im using to solve for this?

Thanks in advance!

@PhilJohnson - I know you have to know whats going on here, Sensei :wink:

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Hey, I did mean .125 (1/8) oops! And yes, I am using a whiteside 1540 (60 degree) v bit.

here is a picture zoomed out. Dont mind the disgustingness. I used an upcut endmill and the material was pretty thin and it was lifting it in different areas through the milling process so its all uneven :frowning:

The v carve itself usually comes out really nice, but once I slap my endmill on there to clear away the excess material, i get that damn ridge which i then have to go back and clean up :(, which is clearly a nightmare on something like this lol

Awesome, thank you! I was thinking this but was hoping for some confirmation. Going to give this a go tonight and see if I can get some cleaner results :slight_smile: Will report back after!

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@PhilJohnson, here are my results. I used a .125 endmill for the pocket portion of this and I had 4 different settings. .125, .120, .110, .100 and you can see the results below. It appears like it slowly got better, but still wasnt perfect (not sure how perfect i should expect… maybe my expectations are too high?)

Are you doing the vbit first, or the clearing job with the endmill?

I’ve had somethign similar happen when the material was a little taller than the height of the vbit and/or didn’t get the vbit height zero’d out well.

And like Phil pointed out, make sure you know exactly the dimensions of your bits, and angles. Each of my Freud 90vbits is a little different and I have different toolpaths set for each.

The flat open areas do not have to be perfect as long as it doesn’t extend higher than the clearance you have set for between the pocket and the inlay.

I ended up making 10 or more test cuts of varying values till I settled on what worked for me and I’m still not overly happy.
I also found that getting the wood perfectly flat ( jointer/planer/drum sander ) before starting helps a lot.

When you start putting it together it is important to get a lot of clamping pressure perfectly parallel and leave it. Titebond III took forever to dry for me so I switched to Titebond Poly because I had to have waterproof, but it has a whole other set of issues.

Can’t wait to see your job finished!! It looks really sweet.

I have always done the vbit first. I think the last one would be acceptable for me. Like you said as long as that extra crap doesn’t extend beyond the clearance height I should be good. My OCD would love to see no scrap around any edges though!

I would still like to tweak it a bit more. I’m surprised the .100 setting still didn’t even cut into the inlay portion of the wood with a .125 bit. Seem odd???

As far as the project, I ended up doing a resin inlay because I ran out of time and didn’t want to waste a ton of time on another male inlay for it to not work.

I suggest you work on your mechanical issues first.
Seems your machine is not ready for this operation. Rigidity first.
Also you better be careful for your Z zero after bit change.
When you sure you’re solidly good on v-wheels, belts ETC, check your V bit if it is sharp enough. Only V-Bits requires faster RPM, slower feed rate.
One last thing, try better wood. Like maple, walnut or similar.

I agree… One other odd thing I just noticed looking at the pictures is look at the varying thicknesses of the “T” (Happens on the other letters but most easily noticeable there) Some of them are thick and some thin… strange.

What feed rate are you using for your 60 degree whiteside bit when doing inlays?

Thanks, I’m going to take a look at everything tonight again… maybe loosen and re-tighten everything just to be sure everything is good to go.

As far as Z Zero… I usually use the probe and re-zero it, and then use last xy after the bit change. I know that could possibly change based off of the cut and where I am setting the probe so I try to be super careful.

What feed rate do you recommend for a 60 deg bit?

Also, this was cutting maple :frowning:

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Sorry it doesn’t looks like maple, my bad.
That tells you are complete out of alignment.
I usually use 90 degree bit at 60~70 ipm and Dewalt Dial on 3.5~4. I think that applies to 60 degree bit as well.
Using last X and Y zero doesn’t change the course. Just choose same clean spot for Zeroing your Z axis.
You’ll be good. We’ll wait for the result.