I’ve been trying my hand at some cnc inlays with mediocre results. The majority of inlay fits perfectly but the detailed sections always seem to have gaps. The file was purchased from broinwood and used the same bits so that shouldn’t be the issue. If it was an issue with setup wouldn’t the whole inlay be messed up rather than just parts? Any advice for what might be causing this?
I’ve taken his course and done a couple of his designs (mostly though I do my own) and averaging one or two boards a month. I don’t get the variable gapping you’re seeing. I’m assuming you dialed in your settings for your bits (mine are 0/6mm for the pocket and 2.8/4.6 for the plug). So it has to be either the design or a mechanical issue with your machine. Since it’s one of Nik’s design I’d bet on something with the machine.
Are you flattening the board front & back before you carve? Are you touching off the top of the material for setting your Z height? It seems if it’s not an X/Y step problem it’s got to be the depth of carve for either the pocket or the plug where they’re mismatched so the finer details don’t match - like the pocket is carving shallower or the plug deeper so the plug isn’t as wide from the taper as needed before it’s bottoming out in the pocket. Or there’s something obstructing it from seating the finer details.
Are you clearing all the fuzzies on the pocket and the sides of all the fine details on the plug? Easing the tips with an xacto on the plug? I’m pretty anal about that step before I glue - it takes me a couple of hours post-carving to get everything cleared. There’s only 1mm of possible clearance for fuzzies & glue before it will bottom out too high.
Check with Nik by sending him an email. He was quite helpful when I first started. I’ve attached a pic of one of mine with some fine details where I pushed his recommendations on thickness/spacing and of the hummingbird designs he has and you can see it’s dead on even at high zooms.
