V-Carve Inlay Using Estlcam (But Technique Can Be Used With Any CAM Software)

See those gaps. Aaaargh. I am going to measure thrice next time. I have a plan. Maybe.

2 Likes

Interesting…
If the cuts were accurate that shouldn’t be physically possible. At a certain depth the insert piece is larger than the recess you’re embedding it into.
Unless the insert is bottoming out. But that shouldn’t happen either if depth is 2mm and start level is 1. Should be a 1mm gap less the amount the wood squishes further in.
hmmm…

It happens because of it not being square and the piece being mirrored. Small pieces should not be a problem though.

1 Like

Sometimes it’s a good idea to cut apart larger plugs into smaller pieces for clamping, but obviously that’s not going to work on a perimeter like that. Was that with a horizontal/vertical flip, or a 45* flip?

Without, just a normal mirror. Want to try that rotating trick next time.

1 Like

Might be time to put together an inlay instruction page. That tip feels like a very valuable one. I kept imagining a flip and rotate but the 45 didn’t occur to me.

2 Likes

I still don’t fully understand why it is supposed to work. My head does not like to think about it… :smiley: The more I am interested in seeing how it works out. And I need time to do both in one go. :stuck_out_tongue:

It is kind of the opposite of marking a large square and measuring the diagonals to check for square, in this case you flip it to use the same diagonal. Very clever.

1 Like

I just thought about combining Jamie’s trick with your idea: I created toolpaths for both operations in the same document (earrings, so pretty small) and set the 0 between both types of wood. I gave them the same depth parameters, but I am going to use wood that is 1mm higher than the other one. Should work. Will update. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Update: the parts are tiny (one circle is 30mm) and they seem to fit without pressure.

More updates later.

3 Likes

:crossed_fingers:
Good luck!

1 Like

With the naked eye it looks good, zoomed it does not. Maybe I should not have started the test with tiny text.

2 Likes

:frowning:
Were you using a 2mm max depth on the carve and the same with a starting depth of -1 on the inlay?
Those numbers may need adjusted for smaller pieces that don’t need even 1mm of depth to get the carve width. Something like 1mm max depth with 0.5mm starting depth on the inlay.

I used two pieces of wood next to each other, the one being 3mm, the other one being 4mm and setting 0 to the 3mm piece. I wanted to try if you can do it the lazy way. :smiley:

We should also not forget that my MPCNC has got 75x55cm workspace. -_-

1 Like

Makes sense. That’s equivalent to the 2mm deep/1mm starting depth.
Maybe the 1mm is too much for the carve and the inlay is bottoming out.
If you’re still trying this you could attempt a 2mm deep/0.5mm starting depth or something like that.

For the V1 Engineering Inlay Repo:

A couple more tutorials on this method that helped me:

From Vectric:

And the best one, from Shawn Gano:

And here are some examples of mine with fine features. It helped to use a hard wood and a soft one. Two hard woods makes fitting that bit more difficult, and also risk of tiny features snapping off.

Google Photos

7 Likes

Those look perfect. Like not wide seems anywhere. :drooling_face:

The only imperfection was some uneven amount of sanding down to the start depth. The Dublin Spire is a bit thick on some. This was probably due in part to warping of the spruce (and my own inattention). As moisture levels changed, they warped this way and that, since the badges are only about 5mm thick.

I use a piece of aluminum tape👌