Hello, I followed the tutorial on how to create a vcarve inlay from the carbide YouTube channel. I made both pieces, but it seems that there is major gaps between the two pieces.
I am newer to CNC so maybe I am doing something wrong. It is on a shapeoko 3xxl, with the newest version of carbide create (v7).
The only areas I could see potential issues with was that I did an advanced v carve in 2 steps (since I don’t have a bit setter) but the pocket operation and vcarve seemed to work as intended in the software simulator. The other variable was that I made the vcarve have a flat bottom due to the stock thickness, but I don’t imagine this would cause an issue. I also used an amana 60 degree vbit but just chose the carbide 60 degree in the software, maybe that makes a difference?
Any ideas? (I posed this a couple weeks ago and no replies so trying again) inlay attempt.c2d (116 KB)
Your parameters look reasonable. You have a female depth of 0.197", a male depth of 0.177" with a top gap of 0.079". So that leaves a 0.020" glue gap.
There is a fudge factor to consider. Imagine it as the wood compressing when you insert the inlay, and the male pushing down a little further than designed. To compensate, make your plug depth a little less, and your top gap a little more, by the same amount.
i.e. to add 0.020" set your plug depth to 0.157", and the top gap to 0.099"
To determine the fudge factor for those materials, you could cut the female hanging off the edge so you can see the cross section of the inlay.
Or you just band saw & sand the first attempt, and measure the depth & the gaps.
