I have used hickory a couple of times. That stuff is hard. The only thing I have cut that is harder is Osage Orange. I got a free piece of Osage Orange from a door prize at our woodworking club. The group called it Bodark. I came home and looked up Bodark and found nothing. Well I guess Bodark is Texas pronunciation of Bois De Arc. The french name for Osage Orange. Native Americans use green Bodark to make bows. Once it dries much like hickory it is hard and springy. Bodark grows naturally in the southern US.
Glad your inlay came out so good. I was failing to get good inlays and posted here on the forum and @wmoy chimed in and things worked out well. Before the CC inlay I used the Vetric method and that came out good but started the inlay at .1" below the top and that was rather hard on the cutter. My last inlay came out very good.
I used the keyhole toolpath to do the hangers on the back. CC just keeps getting better and better. I started with CC 3 but have not yet used the CC 8.
The plaque is 11 x 14" and is made of Mesquite and Maple. Dr Kulhavy is a professor at SFA in the forestry department so I thought the wood used were approporiate.
Indeed it is. And heavy too. These were just small scraps that I had laying around for this test - they came from near the center of the tree and the wood looks “dirty” to me - not suitable for a real project.
Yes it does - I was once tempted by Vectric, but not anymore. And kudos to Carbide3d for making their software compatible with both Windows and Mac (something Vectric doesn’t do). This was a key buying decision for me.
Here’s another test. Same Top Gap as before (1mm; .04"), but this time with a plug depth .03" less than the pocket depth. So in this case the plug depth is .25" - .03" = .22". Inlay came out perfect again. Here’s some cross sections:
The resulting bottom/glue gap is ~.022". Because I’m dialing this in for a cutting board, I think this bottom gap is too big. I think these gaps would result in a hollow sound in the finished product when tapping on a bigger inlay. I want it to sound and feel solid.
I’ll stick with my original settings: Top Gap = 1mm (.04") and Plug Depth .5mm (.02") less than the pocket depth. [Exactly what @wmoy has previously suggested ].
Installing a newer version of Carbide Create will overwrite the current version if the same major version, and will use the installed Pro license if it is within one year.
If you install a new major version it will not overwrite a previous version, but will use the Pro license if valid (if not the license will need to be updated or disabled).
Understood, Thank you. Would I be able to keep my pro version, as is, (the year has gone by) and install the free (newer) version to another directory, Therefore using the features of my pro version when I want, and then switching to the free version when I want to do an inlay?
You will either need to update your Pro license, or selectively enable and disable the Pro license — any version of Carbide Create will see a Pro license if present.
It seems to me that there should be a way to calculate the minimum workable width given the bit used and depth. And maybe whether face or end grain. I did some tests earlier and had to make multiple adjustments to the thinner pieces until Ingot something that worked.
Your parts look good in the pic. If you have trouble with finer detail (wheat stalks), try using end grain for the plug. It’s a pain to glue up the blanks (like a mini end grain cutting board), but end grain holds amazing fine detail without chipping, in situations where face grain won’t.
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