V carve inlays/Shapeoko 4 xxl and CC Pro

[JHickey (James Hickey)]

Good morning community! I want to preface this by saying that this IS IN NO WAY a plea for sympathy. I am a 75 yr old woodworker diagnosed with lung cancer spread to my spine. Treatments are brutal and thank God for my Shapeoko, as it has given me a fun escape from reality. I’ve created some wonderful items and am thankful for getting it. The one thing that escapes me is the ability to do Vcarve inlays. I really want to succeed at these but have failed greatly with several attempts. I’ve watched many many videos YouTube and others, I’ve written and printed the step by step directions and still failed. It’s the one goal I haven’t been able to reach. I’m using ¼ “ maple for the male and ¾” dark walnut for the female, all of which are scrap so far. So, does ANYONE know of or have the perfect step by step for these? THANK YOU all very much!

[CullenS (Cullen Simpson)]

I assume you have seen this thread:

Creating inlays using the new Carbide Create feature

In this tutorial I’ll be showing how to use the inlay feature in the latest Carbide Create (in beta at the time of writing). I’ll try to make this tutorial as detailed and entry level as possible (lots of pictures and small steps), if you’re a more advanced user this might be too boring for you. [pic2-endresult] Before you begin Unlike most other types of cuts, you need to plan ahead a bit more for your inlay. First, the tools you need; you need a V bit as well as a 1/8" or smaller regular …

I have followed it and things mostly worked for me but my design has a couple of intricate parts that keep breaking off. I am going to try it with a simpler design.

I am using a 30 degree bit.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

I did a basic file when this feature was first announced:

Inlay mode for Carbide Create

If I understand correctly, it’s a pair of files: The stock w/ the space in which the inlay will be placed, which is “just” an Advanced V carving set to a suitable depth: [image] [image] and the mirrored inlay which has geometry added around it to facilitate it fitting: [image] [image] [image]

and posted the files (which no one has downloaded), and step-by-step photos with notes — if you’ll post the design you are working on we’ll gladly do that with your files (I just ask that they be a similar size/scale since I have a fair bit of poplar and cedar).

[JHickey (James Hickey)]

Thank you Cullen, I’m going to print these and try it again!

[JHickey (James Hickey)]

Thank you Will, I’ll use these and keep trying.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Here’s a pair of updated files which have a border instead of a field:

inlay example — mirrored inlay.c2d (84 KB)
inlay example.c2d (72 KB)

I think they might make more clear the difference and should work (hopefully I can manage to dupe a piece of geometry twice and add a consistent length to each dimension of each copy before my first cuppa — if not, that’s why it didn’t work).