Inlay methods

[Bill Morrison]

I was at the Borg the other night and got some wilsonart laminate samples to tinker with. Wanted to try and see if I could do some inlay stuff. Cut out a few shapes and lasered the same shape in some wood. Went a little too deep but then I got to wondering what the best way would be to burn the shape to the right depth? I figured on keeping track of my settings and how many passes it would take to get to the correct depth. Is this a trial and error type of deal or are there certain procedures I should follow? This isn’t something for anyone, just for my own benefit.
Thanks
Bill

[Mitchell Andrus]

I do it all the time, but I use wood to inlay. This allows me to sand the surface level.

I've tried with solid surface (formica)... it's hard to get the right depth consistently in a material as variable as wood. Glue squeeze-out is also a problem because you can't clean it off without screwing up the surfaces.

I'd play with materials that have color all the way through (I've seen turtle shell material in sheets somewhere) and use a good hard wood that will allow a final polish at the end of the sanding (leveling) process.

You can see that it's possible to raster and cut in very fine detail:

[Bill Morrison]

Thanks for the info. I just started trying to do inlay stuff and did a few things with wood and yes, it's a lot easier to deal with. Have you ever thought of something you thought might turn out neat? Well, that's what I thought with the formica samples. I bought a shopbot "buddy"about two months ago and I haven't had time to even start learning how to run it. Thanks for reminding me about the glue, forgot all about having to deal with that. What is the wording in the photo?
Take care
Bill