Floor Inlay

[brian_harnett]

Just thought I would post a pic of one of my latest works. The inlay is 20" in diameter inserted in oak flooring in a church in Conn. I did a lot of other work there also besides this piece, but sizing the pictures degrades them to much.
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[daniel]

Hey Thats Really Cool! How are the black lines in the cow made?

Great Stuff!

[gerald_d]

That's a lamb(sheep), not a cow.

[zeykr]

Brian,
Very Nice!

Would love to hear some details on how you do inlay - may have a similar job coming up.

How thick of inlay material did you use?
Are the thin black lines in lamb and border stain or paint in grooves or inlay?
Did you use a vacuum press or is everything friction fit?

Any hints/howto's greatly appreciated!

[brian_harnett]

Hi ken and Dan
Thanks for the interest
I make my inlays 1/4" thick, the wood has enough thickness to fit tight without breaking.
On the bottom of the inlays I put a small chamfer to aid in inserting into the pocket, the inlays are friction fit I use tight bond wood glue on them it grabs quick on snug joints.
Do test cuts first you will probably have to play with your bit diameter settings in whatever cam program you are using.
I drew mine up in Adobe Illustrator and toolpathed it in rams gold.
The black portions are Epoxy mixed with black powder paint, I cut the lines with a 1/16" end mill and filled then with the epoxy
The larger areas I cut with a 1/8" end mill

[jamesgilliam]

Brian, Great work on the inlay. James

[les_linton]

Well, after more hours (days) than I really want to admit, I have finished my floor inlay prototype for a piece to be installed in the flooring display room where I have my day job.


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I was supplied with a very poor dxf file exported out of Illustrator. After a day (and then some) of trying to clean up the file, I redrew it with ACLT 2000i and started working on tool paths with Part Wizard 2. It took a while. Boy did it take a while….. Regardless, I DID IT!!!!! This weekend, I will cut the “real” one into a beautiful book matched piece of quilted maple.

The prototype is a 32” x 15” piece of curly maple with zebra wood, walnut and bubinga inlays. The inlays were cut from ¼” stock and set into .230 pockets and then sanded flush using my drum sanded. I attached the maple to a piece of 1/2” Baltic birch using a slow set epoxy and the help of my vacuum press . I used an 1/8” 2-flute fishtail end mill to start and then a similar 1/16” end mill for the clean up passes and inserts.

The inserts were glued in using TiteBond 2 and I turned the piece upside down onto a piece of cork and placed it into the vacuum press to cure. Yes that was maybe a little overkill, but…

Now, I am going to sell the piece with a template for cutting the floor for $300. But to get that price, they will sign a contract and place a display piece, with my information on it, within 5’ of the insert for as long as the insert is in the floor or until I ask them to take it down.

I must say that it was a really exhilarating feeling when I put the first coat of finish on it and everything just jumped out!!! The oooohs and aaaahs from all that have seen it were pretty cool to.

And thanks to everyone that has provided the information and inspiration to get me to this point!!

Now my question. What would you charge for a one up piece like this? I’ve read a lot of the opinions on “how” to price, but I am not looking for a formula or anything like that, just your gut feeling… I know different areas get different prices, but what do you think?

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy the pic,

Les

[paco]

Impressive Les!!!

I really like the match of woods you made.

As for "how to charge"; consider the work it has needed to get this developed...