Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the time to learn more about the capabilities of the Shapeoko 3 and produce amazing pieces out of wood. However, I was wondering if anyone could help me make a cutting board with an intricate inlay because I am not sure how to make the file in carbide create. An example of the cutting board I am going for is posted down below. Really my question is how to make an inlay with different species of wood so it looks like a specific logo or animal, in carbide create?
Link to video of inlay as a photo would not upload. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzz2RzHtTDQ&t=265s (I know this was not created on a Carbide 3d machine or software but hope the more experienced makers than me could help)
Get a “steep angle” V bit… something like 30 degree.
the steeper the better the result, especially for more fine detail.
(yes you can use 90 degree, but if you have a narrow line, the cut won’t be very deep, so not a lot of surface for glue to keep the wood in place and the wood may come loose during sanding)
Start simpler than your final ambition
don’t use wood that has long “strings” in the grain as that will get you ragged edges and other trouble
Wow, that is an amazing write up and thank you so much for the tips. I am going to try all that out. However, is there still a way to make multicolor inlays so maybe the coffee is a lighter brown to look a latte. I am really trying to make a multicolor cutting board. If you also look at “Broinwood” that could give a better idea of what I am trying to achieve. I appreciate all the comments and help.
but what he really does is the same basic process, just repeated
think of it as separating the original into multiple images, one per color.
if you look carefully, he almost exclusively does designs where the “other” colors are fully inside the “outer” colors… and he just considers the outer color inlay as the base for an inner color
I am completely blown away. That piece you have shown me is really amazing. You should consider changing your name to "King of Advanced V-Carve. Can you elaborate on your first comment of separating a single image into multiple and doing designs where the different colors are inside the outer colors? Such as I am trying to make the Hattori Hanzo board Broinwood made as I found the image he used and converted it into an SVG which I will link down below for everyone to mess around with. How would I make this piece into different bodies for different colors as it so intricate?
what broinwood seems to do is take the shape of the outside color, and do an inlay with just that, including flattening it "enough.
then he takes the next color, and only that, and uses the original stock (now with first layer inlay) and pretends it’s normal, and does the whole carve for that 2nd color… and flatten it
and he does this until he’s at the inner most color.
I’ve not tried this myself, but for this to work the dimensions I normally use are unlikely to be good (I tend to use 0.25" thick wood), and you likely need to go a bit deeper, and leave very little space for glue, so that consecutive cuts aren’t’ mostly in the hollow space underneath.
Great that helped a lot. just one more question. Do you now how to separate these files so that I could do a multi colored wood cutting board like broinwood does?
