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  1. #101
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    I’m back! Been off my CNC for a week or so whilst working and knocking up a garden table (home project) ..... but I did manage to squeeze a little bit of CNC into that. Cheeky little self promotion on the ends!! Might as well post a piccie seeing as it did get a little bit of CNC treatment.....

    So I’ve had to get a proper fix and bang out another inlayed end grain chopping board. Really need to punt these out. I’ve got more boards than things to chop! Here’s a pic of the finished article and also a link to a video of me making it. If you’re bored and have 13minutes to spare, check it out.
    That table's a bit swankyer than the workshop bench I've been making today. Looks good enough to eat your dinner off!

    I wasn't bored but I did have 6.5 minutes to spare so I watched the video at double speed

    Nice detail of how you make them but my wife thought that particular design 'a bit busy' compared to the tree of life one. Though it does show how detailed you can get. I like the press for geting the two parts good and tight.

    My combined birthday present for last year (we were a bit too busy for me to chose anything) and this year is a licence for Vectric Vcarve Desktop so I might start catching you up. between that and the UCCNC/AXBB-E combination which should be operational in a week or so the old machine might have something of a rebirth.

    Kit
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

  2. #102
    Vectric software is pretty good - I've not used anything else obviously but it is very intuitative and does all I need. You'll get the hang of it super quick.

    The press was a Eureka moment for me - I've learned the inlay technique from watching youtube vids..... None of them really show the press, just tapping the plug into the pocket with a hammer. It's only when watching closely after I've had a bit of experience and after the glue up has dried, you can see how much tighter the join is. No way that is just clamps. So I welded up a little press jobbie to really squeeze the parts together. Makes a difference for sure. I did that design early on with just clamps and it was a disaster.

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  4. #103
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    Vectric software is pretty good - I've not used anything else obviously but it is very intuitative and does all I need. You'll get the hang of it super quick.

    The press was a Eureka moment for me - I've learned the inlay technique from watching youtube vids..... None of them really show the press, just tapping the plug into the pocket with a hammer. It's only when watching closely after I've had a bit of experience and after the glue up has dried, you can see how much tighter the join is. No way that is just clamps. So I welded up a little press jobbie to really squeeze the parts together. Makes a difference for sure. I did that design early on with just clamps and it was a disaster.
    I've had Vectric Vcarve trial for a while and really like it, though I found it necessary to watch the tutorial videos, maybe because I'm so used to how CamBam does things. The clever snap tools are really good for drawing up signs and the like very quickly. I've gone for the Desktop version initially ($500 instead of $1000) which is limited to 600 x 600mm but there's plenty bits I can make within that footprint while I'm getting the hang of it. CamBam is excellent for the engineering type pieces like clock gears etc. but I think Vectric is going to be much easier to use for decorative carving which I want to try.

    The press is clearly working well and leaves all your precious clamps available for what they're best at.

    Kit
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

  5. #104
    Another family member commission. Very simple letter cutouts - not really the cnc stuff I like - crap mdf, but looks pretty effective. Idea ripped off one of those funky home wear sites. They are punting these out at £135 each with £20p&p. Recon they can’t make them fast enough. Suppose it’s all down to marketing and the platform and reach you have.
    Click image for larger version. 

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  6. #105
    He's back! Been busy as hell and neglecting my woodworking. Just made some drawers for the back of my defender as the dog cage was a mere 0.5" too wide to fit between the wheel arches. So another video to bore you to tears! Lost my mind a bit on this face grain inlay - was in end grain mode and made the inlay unnecessarily deep - hey ho

    https://youtu.be/d_uLuqviLoM

  7. #106
    Steve P who has commented on one of my end grain inlay chopping board videos on Youtube was asking for some info on my settings. He's on this forum so I said I'd post my workflow on here as opposed to a lengthy post on Youtube comments.

    I watched tons of the inlay videos, but never found a totally comprehensive tutorial. I just ended up getting a bit of info here and there to work out what was actually going on, refined it a little, then made some stuff up myself!

    So, first off get your design and load into Vectric or whatever your using. You'll make the pocket first. Save this as "pocket".
    Now mirror this design to flip it and save as "plug". It's important you don't resize any of these 2 designs now.
    Go back to your pocket file and run a v carve toolpath. I use a fine tapered ball nosed end mill something like a 0.25mm radius tip with a 5^ side angle. You can also add a clearance tool which will save loads of time. I just use any old end mill, basically as big as I can get away with to remove the bulk of the material. Often this is a mere 2 or 3 mm as otherwise on fine designs, nothing is removed
    I cut this pocket to a depth of 8mm in 3 passes. Generic speed and feed for me is 18000rpm and 2000mm/min in the hardwood. Not sure why, but it works fine!
    You'll find there are a fair few fuzzies and blocked carvings that need to be faffed and picked out with a blade and air gun

    Now for the plug in a contrasting wood. open up your saved plug file and drawer a boundary around the design. This is so when you run the toolpath, this immediate area is hogged out and it also serves to throw the plug cut with a relief inverse to the pocket. That boundary is also for when its finished so you can cut your plug out of the rest of the wood.
    Again select v carve toolpath and use the same bits you used on the pocket cut.
    Now here is the bit that warped my mind - flat depth and cut depth..... You need to have a glue gap at the base of the mating surfaces. You also need a bit of gap at the top of the mating surface to cut or mill off. Plus this will let you press the 2 parts together without grounding out. I have used 1 mm glue gap and 2 mm top gap. Another part of this mental torture is that you have to use a few set cuts or the machine will not realise where the top of the material is..... God, I'm not explaining this well - so here are my toolpath depths:

    first pass 1.5mm (d), 2mm (f)
    second pass 4.5mm (d), 2mm (f)
    third pass 7mm (d), 2mm (f)

    This results in the plug being the inverse of the pocket. Same applies to cleaning this up, pick out the bits and fuzzies with a razor blade.

    Check they mate well, then glue up. I use titebond 3, but any pva type glue will probably do. That titebond recons its waterproof and food safe. Plus the yanks love it so it must be good.

    Don't go too heavy on the glue, just ensure all parts of the sides of the pocket are covered. don't leave massive pools of glue in the pocket for 2 reasons. Firstly, the glue might not escape and wont let you press the plug in properly. Secondly which is a real bummer, having a load of wet glue sitting there and soaking into the wood causes warping. I've had several boards properly banana on me from having glue saturate the one side straight in the end grain.

    Once the pocket and plug are mated, squeeze the life out of them. So many youtubers show them tapping together with a rubber mallet and there is a massive gap between the 2 pieces. Then, Lo and Behold, when they bring the dried piece back into shot to mill flat, the gap is all but gone and the 2 pieces are snug. Took me ages to figure this out but I assumed this must be a hydraulic press although never saw one being used. Clearly a trade secret unless I'm barking up the wrong tree. So I made one as you can see in the youtube video with a bottle jack.

    That's pretty much it in my own garbled way. Ask questions if you want or need to. And for the experienced CNCers, please comment on my workflow. I'm a relative amateur who has plucked all of this from youtube videos and fudged my way through trying to interpret what people are doing without them telling me!

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  9. #107
    Cheers Mark,
    Will defo help me when I attempt my 1st Inlay.

    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    Now here is the bit that warped my mind - flat depth and cut depth..... You need to have a glue gap at the base of the mating surfaces. You also need a bit of gap at the top of the mating surface to cut or mill off. Plus this will let you press the 2 parts together without grounding out. I have used 1 mm glue gap and 2 mm top gap. Another part of this mental torture is that you have to use a few set cuts or the machine will not realise where the top of the material is..... God, I'm not explaining this well - so here are my toolpath depths:

    first pass 1.5mm (d), 2mm (f)
    second pass 4.5mm (d), 2mm (f)
    third pass 7mm (d), 2mm (f)

    This results in the plug being the inverse of the pocket. Same applies to cleaning this up, pick out the bits and fuzzies with a razor blade.
    This is a good video that explain the gap in detail.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4VMo9DCzO8

    and another by the 'Two old guys'
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYnO8kSHQ1c
    Top Man

  10. #108
    Yep - that does a better job than my description. However, I'd like to point out they are face grain inlays. Look great, but as the edges are a very shallow slope, the inlay part is very thin right near the edge and wont stand up to chopping board punishment. Hence the much more acute angle of the bits used to get as near as a vertical edge as possible for end grain inlays.

    Those face grain inlays are what I should have done for my Land Rover drawers - no need for such a deep inlay as I did!

  11. #109
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    He's back! Been busy as hell and neglecting my woodworking. Just made some drawers for the back of my defender as the dog cage was a mere 0.5" too wide to fit between the wheel arches. So another video to bore you to tears! Lost my mind a bit on this face grain inlay - was in end grain mode and made the inlay unnecessarily deep - hey ho

    https://youtu.be/d_uLuqviLoM
    Wondered where you'd disappeared too, Jared asked about you the other day and said I'd not seen much of you so you're on my "See if still alive " email list for when I get a spare 10mins... Hence why you haven't had it.. . . . Nice to see you back at it.
    -use common sense, if you lack it, there is no software to help that.

    Email: [email protected]

    Web site: www.jazzcnc.co.uk

  12. #110
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    Yep - that does a better job than my description. However, I'd like to point out they are face grain inlays. Look great, but as the edges are a very shallow slope, the inlay part is very thin right near the edge and wont stand up to chopping board punishment. Hence the much more acute angle of the bits used to get as near as a vertical edge as possible for end grain inlays.

    Those face grain inlays are what I should have done for my Land Rover drawers - no need for such a deep inlay as I did!
    Think you got your head around it now lol :) but i Just found this vid on YouTube. This explains the depth of cut in detail
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY0zLv3wcyc&t=1654s

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