Since Winston’s Inlay video came out, I have seen a lot of great conversations and awesome projects. This has gotten me interested but I am clueless on the in’s and out’s of inlay materials.
I need a 101 course on materials and thickness . A set of suggested links would be great.
Thanks for the help !
Added …
Ok, I did a series of web searches and my brain exploded.
So to limit the question, I will stick to wood based inlay materials.
Looks like .024 " thickness is common.
How do you hold this down ?
The thinner inlay materials are usually for hand-work (stack multiple sheets and cut through them w/ a single cutting action) or cut by a laser.
Usually for CNC inlays the thicknesses are whatever is convenient/necessary — but consider the mechanical aspects of wood — usually you want the inlay to be less than half the thickness of the material it is being applied to so as to reduce the likelihood of warping.
As an initial reference point, my first inlay was a piece of 1/4" poplar with a thinner piece of cedar.