Question About Inlays.

[shilala]

I'm doing some inlaid work and I've done some before. It turned out pretty well. So far it has this time, too.
There's room for improvement, and I feel it's in my feed and speed.
For both male and female parts I've been using a 1" 60* v-carve bit at 2.5IPS, 10,000-12,500 on my router depending on the wood hardness.

I was wondering about some "rule of thumbs" when I'm doing this.
What should I do if my wood is chipping substantially on the male parts?
They're a bit ragged and I would hope they could improve, but I'm not sure if faster or slower is the way to go.
For softer woods, should I slow down or speed up?
What about grain? For instance, cherry cuts great at those feeds and speeds. Soft maple is the same hardness and it looks rough. (Speaking on male parts here.)

I should say that I used these feeds and speeds because they work great on the female parts. I'd like a "softer touch" on all the parts, and I'm more than willing to sacrifice time for cleaner parts.
I suppose I'm looking for less force at the cutting edge, or am I?
Thanks, guys!!!

[paul_z]

Scott,

I usually cut the male and female pieces twice. It helps a lot when trying to get rid of the fuzzies.

I experimented with making the first cutting pass high and then cutting again at the correct height. To cut high, z zero as normal. Then move to Z 0.025. Zero Z. Make the first pass. move to z -0.025. Zero Z. Cut the same toolpath again. It did seem to reduce chipout and improve the fit.

You might try a slower movement speed. Any burn marks should be hidden when assembled.

Last, and perhaps most important, use a sharp bit.

Paul Z

[shilala]

Just to revisit and maybe get some more ideas...

I slowed down to 1.0ips, went up to 13,000rpm, set my pass depth to .125, and lowered the clearance and final stepover passes to 2% rather than 3%.
That made perfectly clean female parts with no fuzzies, no burn, and zero cleanup.
No cutting twice like I had been doing, but it took more time to do one good pass than the two I was doing before.
That was on black walnut.

I'll be doing the male parts later, I'm excited to see how they do.

[mikeacg]

It will be interesting to see what you come up with! Pictures too, if you get a chance!

Mike

[dana_swift]

Paul- thanks for the two cuts advise! I was using your V carve inlay technique just today. The fuzzies were a bit annoying, I cleaned up the cuts with an Xacto knife and was thinking there had to be a better way.

I will try the 0.025 high first pass with my next run with the double cut strategy.

Very timely! love the forum :)

Thanks again-

D