This is my first inlay project. Pretty much the reason I purchased the Onefinity a year ago. However, I admit I jumped in the deep end when I did this and it took me several months to complete, plus a lot of mistakes along the way. The good part is; a lot of mistakes along the way means I learned a lot more. 
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WOW! That is beautiful! I’m amazed that this is your first.
This is incredible work for a first time inlay. Or any amount of experience for that matter.
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Hah wow. That looks more like a culmination of years of practice than a first project.
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That is absolutely amazing. Give yourself a good pat on the back! Keep up the good work. Cheers
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Very impressive. Surprised you were able to keep the same zero point all the time.
Any tips for inlays for the rest of us? I want to do a couple inlays in charcuterie boards as gifts this holiday.
Don’t let anyone put it in the dishwasher!
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Very nice work! Are you keeping that or selling it? Christmas gift?
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I’d be afraid to use it
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Now THATS why I wanted to put this here! I only wanted to encourage others to build and create. This is a blessing to me and even more so if I can share what I learned more then what I created.
Some tips:
- Do something! Make a circle in a block of wood. Make some wiggly lines. Anything but do something with inlay! And DON’T be afraid of making mistakes. That’s how we learn!
- Watch the videos on YouTube and take your time. EXPERIMENT with inlay depths is a big one!
- When you start to do something serious, draw it out on paper first, or even better, a drawing program. I use CorelDraw and Inkscape.
- My primary bits are: 1/4" & 1/8" downcut endmill, and fine detail with Amana 46280-K, which is a really small ball nose bit. I learned this by watching very closely others on YouTube like Broinwood.
- Get your hold downs good! My first mistake was allowing the wood to move very slightly. This is a big area for me that made a huge difference in everything with CNC - Don’t let the workpiece move!
- If you are working on the final piece, the one you want to keep or give away or sell, experiment for each inlay cut on scrap wood of the same type. You’d be surprised how a softer wood wont hold detail while a harder wood like Sugar Maple holds great.
- For fine detail, I stuck with 1/8" DC bit even though I had room for a 1/4" DC bit. The bigger bit was destroying the detail but the smaller bit kept the detail in place.
I hope this helps even one person. That makes it even more enjoyable to do all of this.
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It was a gift to someone who asked if I could make it for him
Any video on particular you found particularly useful?
Great work! What did you determine as your go to values for the start/flat depth? Thank you.
Amazing! I just ordered my 1F and am hoping to do inlays as well. You are an inspiration! You should consider starting a YT channel, these inlay and 1F videos seem to do pretty well.
Broinwood’s channel is amazing, but I find it a little overwhelming to follow. I found a channel called TK Designs. He seems to have drawn inspiration from Broinwood (doesn’t use a 1F, but that shouldn’t matter). This video in particular has helped me a lot. Inlay Tutorial - How I do end grain inlays in Vectric VCarve Desktop. 4K - YouTube
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I thought this guy did a pretty good job. He had some issue with sound, but still pretty good
How to create perfect inlays with a CNC every time // Woodworking // Tutorial // - YouTube
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.19 and .01
But you really need to experiment with this. I would put something simple together then cut it and see the depth. For a cutting board, I did not want a gap under the inlay. I even used .21 and .02 just to see what would happen.
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This is fantastic and very well done! What especially caught my eye was how the one pick at the bottom follows the contour of the juice groove. It shows just how deep the inlay goes and looks great.
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Thats amazing, And as a guitar player myself - very inspirational. Well done!.
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Spectacular. I did the same thing, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and was inspired to purchase a dependable CNC. You jumped into the deep end before I did and the results are better that what I’ve seen out there. BROINWOOD could not have done this.
Wow! Thank you for the compliment comparing me to Broinwood! That guy is a serious artist and watching him taught me a lot on this, but I have a long way to be at his level. I have a couple dozen videos of the project I hope I can eventually upload on YouTube. Maybe those will really help folks do more. That’s what’s this community is about!
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