I just cut the male part of another inlay I started three weeks ago, and for some reason one letter just won’t fit in. Everything seems to work except for the two words that end in Y. The other letters all sink right down leaving just the glue gap, but the letter Y in this vector seems to break the inlay the same way both times.
Worse, I can’t figure out what I need to chisel out of the male or female part in order to make it fit. I’d understand if there was some part of the male vector that didn’t get removed (like the inside circle in a P or R). I’m hoping there’s a change I can make to the plug side and just re-carve that. I don’t think it’s a question of just shrinking the male part by a tiny bit. This isn’t a snug fit, it feels like the male vector for that one letter doesn’t actually match, although I’m sure I just mirrored the original vector and surrounded it with an offset.
If anyone sees something I’m missing, I’d really appreciate the advice. (Tod - I still need to do your 2" calibration test, but I wanted to finish this piece I had started before my relatives visit.)
Thanks!
P.S. A bit of the maple male part chipped out when the V-bit came through, but I would think that would make it easier to fit, not harder.
Ah, thank you! I had actually seen that sharp corner, but had thought since it was in both the female and male side, it wouldn’t be an issue as I used the same bits on both sides. That is, if an area was so small that it didn’t get carved into the female part, it also wouldn’t get carved on the male side, so they would “cancel each other out.” Hah! Oops! (For anyone else slow like me, I think there are two mistakes there: the male vectors aren’t the same vectors as the female ones, and even if they were, not carving either side of a letter makes the two boards just meet at their original surface, not sink down.)
Checking just that corner, I was able to chisel it down in just a few seconds and sure enough it fits right in. I’ll probably still have the machine re-carve those two words rather than hope my quick chisel work was precise enough for a neat inlay.
Now the next question is: How do I avoid this in the future. I can look for sharp points in the vectors on either side and “square them up” as you did, but then why does the sharp point right next to it work without doing that? The bit goes all the way to the point inside the top of the Y, but doesn’t go all the way to the point under the Y next to the N. I assume there’s some threshold where the software decides it’s too narrow - is that 0.1mm? 0.01mm? Doesn’t a V-bit “theoretically” have an infinitely small tip?
