I have been asking question about the Inlay mode. I made an inlay out of maple with a purple heart base. The picture is after I filled it with filler because there are gaps along the edges. I will attach the files. So I have done a couple of inlays with the new feature and they have all been failures. Please look at the files and give me some feed back on what I can change.
Here is the picture of the female pocket and inlay before gluing.
When I glued up the inlay the inlay laid flat on top of the female pocket. I started to not use it but decided to try and see what happened. There should have been a gap between the purple heart and the maple inlay but there was none. I clamped it with very large Bessy F clamps with a thick board on top so I think the clamping was good.
Here is the glued up inlay with some filler already applied. I forgot to take a picture with the large gaps. I put red circles around the problem areas.
I used a 60 degree Groovee Jenny Down Cut vee bit and a 3/16" down cut flat end mill.
The font was Impact and are not intricate and quite straight forward. The font size is 5.5" so plenty big. I cut the female pocket to .2" and the male inlay with the inlay option to .2" with a 0.020" bottom gap.
hmmm I would normally suggest using the cut-pockets-first option (reduces the load on the V bit)âŚ
(also you use a 0.08" DOC for the V bit; I usually donât do more than 0.04" but maybe Iâm a chicken for F&S)
WHen you manually do your inlays, do you cut your pockets first ?
No I cut the vee first. The 60 degree Groovee Jenny bit does scream making the cuts. Supposedly using the vee cut first you get a cleaner bottom cut for the flat portions. This is the 3rd inlay I have done with the builtin Inlay option and they have all had gaps. Since the inlay is maple I could fill with neutral filler but in the past I made inlays that were much tighter using the âVetricâ method which was to start at a depth of .1" for the male inlay and cut to the same .2" depth. that makes the inlay only .1" deep and I was afraid with the hollow part below the inlay could be smashed in. I liked the inlay in CC with the bottom gap much shallower than the manual method of making inlay with the âVetricâ method. I am using CC and not Vetric.
Is it an illusion? In your 2nd picture with the clamps, it looks like there is a sizeable gap between the purple heart & maple?? I would call this the Saw Gap. Or is it just bottoming out in the glue gap, which we canât see?
Either way, If you liked the Vectric method using 0.100 but would like to go smaller, and the CC method using 0.020 isnât enough, try using a bit more. 0.030, 0.040, even 0.050.
Any of those is going to make the male a little bit âfatterâ so it doesnât fit as far down in the pocket.
Whether you do it manually, with a start depth of 0.150 & final depth of 0.200âŚ
Or with the Inlay feature with Start: 0.0 Max: 0.200 & Glue gap: 0.050 Shouldnât matter. The Z depths in the G-Code should be the same. The only thing you gain with the Inlay feature is it will still honor you depth of cut on the tool, and output multiple depth/layer cuts.
Yes the maple inlay in one of the pictures above was flat against the purple heart instead of having some room above the purpleheart. The maple material was .25" so I had some material I had to surface off. I have had success with the âVetricâ method of starting at .1" but as already stated that leaves a .1 gap underneath the inlay.
So if you look at my files can you give me any information about changing them to use the CC inlay? I followed Fenrusâs instructions for making the inlay but have not been successful. I am stuck between a rock and a hard spot. @Tod1d suggested in increasing the glue gap and I may try that but I dont have faith in that being any more successful. Only time will tell.
So please give me your successful formula for making an inlay please.
