Mineral Inlays

[Mark W Pugh]

So I was browsing youtube the other night, and came across a guy inlaying characters with turquoise. My question is with glue selection.

He was using CA glue vs epoxy. Has anyone actually done something like this, and will CA be a better choice? I can see where mixing small amounts of epoxy, vs using CA, would be a draw back.

Any other comments or techniques?

Thanks

[Jamie Buxton]

I've done it with epoxy, and that worked well. I use West Systems epoxy. It mixes up to the consistency of pancake syrup, and takes overnight to cure. That is, it is not five-minute epoxy, which I think would not work well for this.

[Wes Ramsey]

I haven't tried it with epoxy, only thin CA. I can see how epoxy would work, but this is just the way I learned to inlace. It helps to seal the area around where you intend to fill or the CA glue will soak in and change the color of the wood. Anything compatible with your final finish is good. I use coffee grounds more than anything - has a color similar to bark - but I also use different minerals and stone depending on what color I'm going for. I've also had good luck with powdered metals. you might try searching or asking over in the turning room. It is probably a more commonly-used skill there than with flat wood.

[Mark W Pugh]

I haven't tried it with epoxy, only thin CA. I can see how epoxy would work, but this is just the way I learned to inlace. It helps to seal the area around where you intend to fill or the CA glue will soak in and change the color of the wood. Anything compatible with your final finish is good. I use coffee grounds more than anything - has a color similar to bark - but I also use different minerals and stone depending on what color I'm going for. I've also had good luck with powdered metals. you might try searching or asking over in the turning room. It is probably a more commonly-used skill there than with flat wood.

Does the CA soak in deep, or can it be easily sanded off later?

[Jim Tobias]

Mark,
I've done inlay with several minerals(turquoise, malachite, coral) and have had good luck using CA glue. I usually start out with the thick one in the bottom of the inlay and then build up the fill ins with thinner CA. I have 3 different viscosities (sp). Thick-extra gap filling, Med- gap filling and thin (almost like water.
It works , just takes patience to fill and sand and then refill voids and resand and polish. The one below was one of the first attempts a couple of years back. I think I overfilled the first time.
Jim

330238330237330239330240330241

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Does the CA soak in deep, or can it be easily sanded off later?

CA soaks in softer wood end grain really deep, no way to sand it out. On harder wood it still penetrates enough to be visible. I spray it with Deft rattle can lacquer, couple quick coats. That stops the CA from soaking in. You can sand off the hard wood CA discoloration, but it's easy to hit it with Deft.

[Mark W Pugh]

Mark,
I've done inlay with several minerals(turquoise, malachite, coral) and have had good luck using CA glue. I usually start out with the thick one in the bottom of the inlay and then build up the fill ins with thinner CA. I have 3 different viscosities (sp). Thick-extra gap filling, Med- gap filling and thin (almost like water.
It works , just takes patience to fill and sand and then refill voids and resand and polish. The one below was one of the first attempts a couple of years back. I think I overfilled the first time.
Jim



Jim,

That looks great. Did you chisel the top off first, or did you just sand the pile down? Would 60 grit be my selection of paper for first sanding?

edit: any particular CA you find works best at this?

Thanks for the info

[Jim Tobias]

Mark,
No chisel work on this...started out with 60, then 80 grit and so forth all way up to 2000 with polish. You can get whatever sheen you desire.
Be careful to keep sander flat so as not to scar up wood perimeter with low grits.

jim

[Wes Ramsey]

Nice work Jim! As I mentioned before I haven't tried inlace with flat wood yet. On turnings I just spin it back up and level off the high spots before sanding. Not so easy with flat wood :) I use Starbond, which comes with pinpoint tips that make it easier to put the CA only where you want it. Most often I just use it for filling cracks to get a level surface. In this case I can usually just rub the filler into the crack and flood with CA glue. That leaves very little excess on top and very little sanding is required. For larger inlace jobs you have to build it up and sand it down, and often fill in any gaps after the fact. With stone it looks great - copper apparently requires a little more precision and practice:
330306330307
It looks really nice in person, but you can see the spot at the top of the F where I had to go back and touch up an area I didn't fill well enough.

[Bruce Volden]

I do what Jim does! USE A DUST MASK-do not breathe the stone dust (silicosis).
I've posted some pics a few years ago if you search for them here. I "cheat" and use a laser for the designs.
I also crush my own turquoise and malachite to the consistencies I like to work with. Sometimes as fine as powder.

Bruce

[Wes Ramsey]

I do what Jim does! USE A DUST MASK-do not breathe the stone dust (silicosis).
I've posted some pics a few years ago if you search for them here. I "cheat" and use a laser for the designs.
I also crush my own turquoise and malachite to the consistencies I like to work with. Sometimes as fine as powder.

Bruce

Malachite dust is especially hazardous as it contains copper sulphate, but most others are harmless enough. Silicosis is a potential hazard, but with the small amounts used I'd be more worried about brown lung from wood dust long before silicosis.

[Bill McDermott]

If using Epoxy, remember that it cures to a "green" state first, which is solid but still soft enough to scrape and chisel. Then it gets really hard and must be sanded. I mention this because you will not get a nice finish until it gets fully cured, hard. But you can work it while green to remove a lot of the excess material much more easily with a blade than with abrasives.

Fast set and slow set epoxies, different temperatures, etc. will determine when those changes take place. No golden rule.