Dewey, thanks for taking the time and sharing your skill with us, this is an excellent tutorial.
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Dewey, thanks for taking the time and sharing your skill with us, this is an excellent tutorial.
Great looking work. Thanks for the tutorial
Thanks, Dewey. Your tutorial is very clear and helpful.
An alternative to clearing the spaces for the fans would be to cut them with a forester bit at an earlier stage of construction, then fitting the fans to the recesses. Would that be problematic, or more time-consuming? (I've not done any marquetry, but would like to.)
Also, you could cut the outer bands with a circle cutter (or could use a forester bit for the inside radius). You'd have to sandwich the veneer between two boards to keep it intact, and you'd no doubt have to make two 360s to get four 90+s, but you could two at a time. Again, you'd have to fit the fans to the rings. Opinion?
I would be interested in a tutorial on string inlay. One variant is to use dyed epoxy rather than wood for the inlays. I saw that in a Fine Woodworking issue quite some time ago. If you've tried that perhaps you could include a few words on that technique.
Cary
That is certainly an idea, however I have never seen or heard of it done. I suppose with the right setup it would work great for bulk work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cary Swoveland
I think this one would be tougher than you might think. If you could get the center point of the cutter directly over the tips of the fan you could cut the ring but it you were just a bit off you would either damage the tips or have an imperfect circle. The imperfect circle will show your mistakes when you try to combine the fans to make a half circle or full circle... still I am not saying it couldn't be done. Your idea doing this in reverse by making a 360 and then breaking it up might work if you were careful and accurate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cary Swoveland
I have done this before and I have used other materials such as Turquoise for example. The epoxy works fine as long as you use the right kind (not 5 min) and let it fully cure... otherwise it gums up and ruins the inlay. I may create another tutorial for inlay next (after the Morris Chair is done). It is real simple. The stringing that you see on federal furniture somewhat falls into this category but the curves are far more advanced than strait lines as you might imagine. The Master of Federal stringing is IMHO Steve Latta and he produced an outstanding video for Lie Nielson to hype up the new string and berry tools he created for them. If you ever want to try and tackle a federal piece or a true Pennsylvania spice chest you will want to see this video and consider the tool purchases as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cary Swoveland
For all,
Please post here or PM me and tell me what you are interested in seeing for the inlay tutorial and I will take your ideas and try to incorporate them for the next in the series.
WOW Dewey. I'm going to have to study this closely. You know how I like the veneers. I'd love to do some work like that on one of my boxes. How about more pics of the finished project? Looks great.
Nice information -- I like the sand effect.
I have never tried anything other than a strip inlay
Thanks for taking the time to put it up.
Two more questions, Dewey: 1) do you use a veneer saw for straight edges; and 2) what Exacto blades do you find work best?
Cary
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cary Swoveland
I personally don't use a veneer saw for anything. I cut marquetry with either an Exacto, razor blade, or scroll saw. Most folks think veneer saws come ready to use out of the box but they will only cut well if tuned first (kind of like a hand plane). A razor blade or Exacto blade if used in successive passes will produce a cut that you would have to magnify to see flaws. This for me, is a personal choice so I hope I am not starting a razor vs. veneer saw argument. Veneer saws also are used for strait lines as they need the back to ride on a strait edge. If I am going to cut strait, a razor is hard to beat. If I need multiple strait pieces, then I stack veneers and cut them on a table saw.
As for the Exacto blades, I have yet to see anyone prove that there is any difference in quality. The ones I buy from woodcraft cut the same as the ones from Lowes. More thought IMO, should go into the actual knife itself as it houses the blade holder and provides the user with a handle (which if either of the two are flawed, will cause extreme frustration). I have the Woodcraft brand craft knife (seen in the tutorial) and a Stanley set which comes in a box with a handle and a variety of different shaped blades. I also have a generic metal one that I like which I got at Joan's or Michaels.
As much as I may have tried to explain this, Mark Adams explains it better in his free videos on Wood Magazine online. When you see the player on the right use the right arrow at the bottom of the video window to scroll over to the veneering section. There is a 12 part series which explains your questions about the veneer saws, the use of the Exacto, and stack cutting on the TS.
http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/file.jsp?item=video/player&temp=yes
Sorry for the long winded answer but you sound like you are truly interested in this so hopefully this is helpful!
Thanks for the pointer to Marc Adams' videos on veneering. I watched them this afternoon. They're excellent. I also appreciate your comments on veneer saws and knives.
When I asked about the Exacto blades you use, I was referring to the blade types. For example, Marc uses one that is long and pointed, with a straight cutting edge, for all the cutting shown in his videos, which are mostly straight cuts. I think I saw the same blade in one of the pics in your tutorial. I know Exacto sells all sorts of blades, including that have curved cutting edges, even some with serrated blades. Do you use just the one type of blade? Perhaps the choice of blade is incidental.
Cary
Oh, ok Cary sorry about that:oQuote:
Originally Posted by Cary Swoveland
The answer is yes. I use the same exact type of blade Mark uses in the video. The others will work fine as well but I would shy way from the designs that tend to flex as they will try to follow the wood grain rather than the line you intend.
Very nice tutorial Dewey, thank you. I'm in the process of making some compass roses for a kayak I'm building and have been using ebony for the black pieces. Very hard stuff, it takes a lot of strokes to cut with the exacto knife. A softer wood dyed black would sure make life easier. What do you use to dye your black accent pieces? Does the color go deep enough that you don't scrape through when leveling the inlay in the field?
thanks,
Mark
Hello,
Good info.
I'm going to try my hand at this now that colder weather/longer nights is forcing me out of the shop/into the house.
Plus, I have some time on Sunday's on my hands - being a Brown's fan does have it's advantages at times ;) with all hope of post-season play disappearing by mid October.
bookmark inlay
Rich, I hear you ... I am a Dolphins fan.:rolleyes:
The hot sand will bring up the temp in the shop a few degs.:)