Wood inlays in a maple floor

[Tom Fischer]

Hi all,

Looking for advice. Last year the DW wanted new hardwood floors (which I don't do), so we hired a local fella to install them. Being a junkie for wood details, I went out on a limb, and decided to spice it up a bit. So I made some inlays out of stuff laying around in the basement. Only problem is that I don't have any experience with floor inlays. :eek:

Cutting to the chase, the larger inlay (ellipse ~ 39" X 18") cracked last winter, in a very cold evening (below 10 degrees F). The garage is below this floor, so the temperature changes were too violent.
Thinking about it, this ellipse has 20 slices @ 18degrees each. The center of the ellipse has zero cross grain expansion, and the circumference has almost 8 feet of cross grain expansion. Really asking the wood to super-behave.
I do not believe that the ellipse can be repaired.
All four 90 degree fans are fine, as is the walnut pin-striping.

All these inlays (the quarter fans and the ellipse) I made from 3/4" solid black cherry. No laminations. All these inlays were glued in liquid-nails-type stuff to the subfloor, standard 5/8" or 3/4" subfloor sheathing.

Here's the cherry ellipse (before it cracked):
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7161/6483443057_d881d9c26f_b.jpg

Here's some other pics for perspective
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7004/6483443163_bf7d4defed_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6483443269_692142c0d1_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7151/6483442953_6bfbde02c4_b.jpg

And here is the scheme, the four corner 90 degree fans plus the center ellipse were supposed to match the clock. The clock was hand made by a gent in western NY state.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6483443561_007814cb1d_b.jpg

So, now that the ellipse has failed, I am thinking maybe try it again, but glue (titebond) all 20 slices to a 1/2 (or (7/16" ??) high grade plywood back. When sanded flush the veneer will be maybe 5/16", but I am hearing that is how these things are made commercially.

Also, I am thinking of making the ellipse out of black walnut (if I do remake it). Walnut being less splintery than cherry.

Any thoughts?

thanks , and happy holidays to all!

tom

PS. when I purchased that clock, the elderly fella told me the design was based on a famous clock. I found it a few years later ...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6483598369_6aabe47cfe_z.jpg

[Mike Henderson]

It's really tough to make a radial design from solid wood and have it hold up. I've found that the best approach is to use thin slices of "show" wood and glue them to something stable, such as plywood. The show wood will still expand and contract but if it's thin enough it won't have enough strength to break. Glue the "veneer" down to the plywood with a good hard glue, such as urea formaldehyde.

You did an excellent job of fitting the radial pieces together.

Mike

[Jeff Monson]

I'm no flooring expert, but I'd be willing to bet if you made the ellipse the same size, but used a thin veneer glued to a mdf or plywood substrate you'd be fine. Using 3/4" material will never hold together with that much glued surface.

[Peter Quinn]

I work for a flooring manufacturer, we make engineered wood floorngi for inlay work that uses a 3/16" wear layer and a slightly less than 5/8" Baltic birch substrate. There are lots of different grades of BB, the one we use comes in 4x8 sheets to better suit our needs, has no voids or patches one face, and is rated for exterior exposure, so it's completely water proof glue. Nice material and very stable. I find it's easier to press the pieces as squares in lengths in a stack then cut the shaped parts later and glue these together with 1/4" BB splines than to try and press suchnanthick veneer as one piece. So it would be manufactured just like your original once you make the blanks. On rays you can make the blanks slightly wider and longer than required to yield two pieces to make the pressing easier, less individual blanks to press.

You might want to consider better insulating that garage ceiling if the floor is getting cold enough to crack? Spray foam for instance or a combi foam and fiberglass approach?

[John Coloccia]

Or you can save a bunch of time and hastle, and go here...

http://www.rugstomydoor.com/scripts/default.asp





:D

[Carroll Courtney]

Tom,awhile back I watch an episode of Modern Masters that feature a guy who made his own medallions using stock 3/8 thick and gluing it down to 3/8 baltic birch plywood.I can't remember the rest other than maybe using straight bit and a template to cut out for the medallion then a 3/8x3/8 rabbit bit to set in his medallion.I think that he glued it to the wood flooring and not to the subflooring so it would move w/ the floor.By the way nice job on the flooring and did you make the clock?If so,start another post on it.---Carroll

[Joe Angrisani]

.....You might want to consider better insulating that garage ceiling if the floor is getting cold enough to crack?.....

Do you really think it's the cold that cracked it??? Every hardwood floor I've ever lived with moved with the overall humidity shift that comes with the change of seasons. Gaps are tight in humid summer, and gaps are open in dry winter.

Tom.... How will you address the normal wood movement in the floor across the ellipse? The 39" dimension is "across boards", so you'll see at least 3/16" swelling and shrinking across that distance. Even if you use plywood to back the veneer more substantially, you'll still have motion between the floor and the ply to contend with. How do you floor guys deal with an unchanging inlay surround by changing boards?