-
Posts
-
SLowly, slowly.
Slowly. If the directions say 4 hours to cure at 135 F and 12 hours at 80-95 F, figure about two days at 70+ F.
Chris
Andy,
I dont konw about Jon’s company but we offset 2 hundreds all the way around when we do it. We also pocket down and leave 1/16 in the cavity.
John
Chris,
You have done an exceptional job on that for you first time. Keep it up and you will have no problem being successful in this industry.
Andy,
Thanks, although honesty compels me to tell you that it is far from perfect.. Lessons Learned:
- Wait until you are absolutly sure the resin is cured, then wait another 12 hours (if not using a hot box or heat blanket) I have two spots that went gooey and dug up some material leaving a void because I jumped the gun.
- Get every single bit of hot melt that you can OFF WITH THE ROUTER. As was noted here sanding any of that stuf is a nightmare.
- Fill the dams, even if it means mixing a new bottle and you only need a little bit to finish
- Let the CNC operator use all his tricks(as was mentioned here) to make sharp corners and letters for a formal, finished product. The new machine at the shop that cut this did not have 1/4 collet for the router yet so we cut it on the back up, for simplicities sake we only used a 1/8 cutter bit for the entire job.
Also I still need to do an edge build up to make it presentable.
Chris
Finished Sample
Final lesson learned, NEVER EVER EVER look down the barrel of a mix-pac gun. Even if it is held down at your waist. That old cartridge of adhesive might have a small blockage in the hardner which might build up back pressure which might then overcome the blockage and shoot you in the eye.
It
mightburn more than just a little.Chris
We prefer to do hard inlays as opposed to resin also, and we gave up on the V bit partly because of this. I bought some 1/16 diameter spiral from Onsrud to make the corners nice and tight. Have had little problems.
Usually what we do Andy is cut the inlay pieces first, then cut the pocket about .005 bigger. Leave it up there with the vac on and dry fit all the pieces, if need be change the compensation and cut the pockets a little bigger. We made a pub table for a recent home show, took almost no time to do. Start to finish maybe 4 hours. Get a system, they are pretty easy.
We glue all the pieces in with a flange on them to keep them somewhat level, and then run the piece through our wide belt to sand them all flush, it simplifies the process.
Matt,
You cut the insert piece first and then the pocket. So if I understand correctly, you leave the piece on the CNC while test fitting, then recut if necessary.
Does the .005 leave a glue line? Do you always use an unsharpened bit?
How is the inlay resin going to act if I try to finish it to a higher gloss? I don’t have anything on hand to go higher than satin, so I ahven’t had a chance to play with it yet.
Thanks
Chris
Andy wrote
Matt,
You cut the insert piece first and then the pocket. So if I understand correctly, you leave the piece on the CNC while test fitting, then recut if necessary.
Does the .005 leave a glue line? Do you always use an unsharpened bit?
Yeah, Andy. Cut pieces first, then the pocket. You can always make a pocket bigger by changing one setting. If you continually have to run back in the program individual pieces, you will be mad at yourself.
Not had to many problems with glue lines. Same story as always. Depends on the color. You wanna be a little careful.
As far as sharpened bit go, for most inlay I island fill the pattern with our standard 1/4″ bit or maybe a 1/2″ if its huge, then trace the outline with a 1/8″ diameter, then a 1/16″ diameter. This puts a 1/32″ radius everywhere. I have never sharpened a 1/16″ diameter bit, not sure you can do it. Usually they get broken before they get dull. Seems to me the life is pretty good on them in my experience. A bit that small quits cutting, it just snaps though.
Matt, we would never attempt to sharpen a bit that small. You breathe on that thing with a diamond wheel and it will snap. Doing an 1/8″ spiral is pushing your luck. They’re cheap enought to just pitch.
I am also just getting into inlays. Information on feeds and feeds and depth of cut are conspicuius by there absence. I realize that every machine and setup is different but it would nice to have a starting point to at least get you in the ballpark. Andy’s info on the bit he was using saved me a lot of experimenting time. The bit the tooling pople recommended was not working well at all. I have not used any bits smaller than 1/4 in. in solid surface and those 1/8 and 1/16 bits sure look flimsy.
George
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.