tools for inlay work

Re: tools for inlay work

Tony - Memphis

>I've never tried either, but Imade my own in about 15 minutes out of scrap poplar and a small piece of scraper I got from Lee Valley. Worked great. I could see buying one though. Easy to get the correct size blanks and such. Some of them seem a bit pricey to me though. I think a lot of folks make their own and buy the blanks from LN or LV too.

Tony

Re: sratch stock thoughts  *LINK*

paul womack

>


http://www.geocities.com/plybench/scratch.html

Best solution is one you will use

Jesse in Maryland

>I took Garret's class too (great class, thanks Garrett) and collected a couple of band saw blades with every intention of grinding down a couple of bead cutters. Something always came up whenever I thought I had time to get to it. Six months later when I actually needed to cut some beads, I bought the Veritas tool. It arrived in time for my two hour weekend woodworking window and I loved it. I still have the bandsaw blades and I will get back to the project someday, no really....

OT! Pages made with VI!

Greg Sloop, Portland Oregon

>Web-pages made with Vi? Dang.

That's like a space shuttle made with hand-tools! LOL

EMACS would have been better...

(Ok, really I hate either, cause I always get lost and can't ever remember the commands, but I thought it might be good for a flame or two!)

You be the geek mans' man.

Do you do them on a DEC Mini too?

Cheers,

Greg

Re: tools for inlay work

Alan Hamilton

>David,

I guess it depends on what you most like to do, work on wood, or work on tools.

A large percentage of the regulars around here love making their own tools (and restore, improve...). They can't see the sense in buying what they can make for a fraction of the cost. That's their choice; that's what gives them the most satisfaction; and there's nothing wrong with doing it that way.

People like me don't much care for making or investing hours on our tools. Our object, I suppose, is to work wood into something. That's our choice; that's what gives us the most satisfaction; and there's nothing wrong with that, either.

No one can answer your question for you. You have to decide for yourself with which group you most feel an affinity. There's no right or wrong in this. There's only what you want to do.

Alan

Re: tools for inlay work

Mike Stallard

>David,

I'm not sure what type of inlay work you are doing. If it is string inlay, Michael Fortune had an article in Woodwork a little while ago about cutting the grooves with what was basically a card scraper into which he filed two saw teeth on one corner. He used the tool to trace around forms he made. He did some very impressive work.

Similarly, Steve Latta had a sequence on Roy Underhill's show on inlay where his groove cutter was a 1/2 inch wide piece of saw blade steel into which he cut two or three crosscut saw teeth. He used the tool to inlay arcs and straight lines. I have tried Latta's approach and it worked very well, even across grain.

Re: tools for inlay work

Jim Crammond in Monroe, Mi.

>David,

I've made a scratch stock using the method that Garrett Hack describes for doing string inlay. It is pretty simple and works well. It probably took a half hour or an hour to make the cutter.

I've watched Steve Latta demonstrate doing string inlay and his cutter looked like it would do a little cleaner job cross grain, it also seems like it would be some what more difficult to make.

Jim

Re: OT! Pages made with VI!

paul womack

>guess I'm just an oldtools kind of guy.

BugBear

Re: tools for inlay work

Dan Fisher

>I've taken a week-long class with Steve Latta. A large portion of the time involved making several tools for inlay work. For the cutting blades, we used half inch strips cut from scrapers. (He had it done in a machine shop.) Filing the teeth is exacting, but not too hard. For the circular tool, we filed 2 teeth on a crosscut pattern, which allowed the tool to follow tight curves. We made another tool for straight lines, using 3 teeth. It is also necessary to punch holes in the blades so that they can be screwed with washers to the handles.

Re: tools for inlay work

Jim Cosgrove

>Dan,

I'm having a hard time envisioning how a 1/2" wide scraper can follow an arc. Was the end of it rounded before the teeth were cut into it? (Making it like part of a minature table saw blade?) Or was it that the teeth were large enough and widely spaced (2 teeth per 1/2 inch same as a 4 tpi saw) that those two points could follow an arc. How small of an arc? What am I missing here?

--Jim

Re: tools for inlay work

Mike Stallard

>On the Underhill show I saw, Latta demonstrated two cutters, one for arcs that had two teeth and another for straight lines that had three teeth. Each cutter consisted of a strip of steel about 4 inches long by 1/2 inch wide. The strips of steel were screwed onto the ends of what appeared to be narrow pieces of 1/2 inch birch plywood. The teeth were cut into the centers of one 1/2 inch end of the steel. The teeth were about 15 to 18 tpi size. The steel on either end of the teeth was relieved so that the teeth stuck out about 1/16 inch. They were mounted so that only the teeth extended below the bottom of the plywood.

Re: tools for inlay work

Jim Cosgrove

>Ah, that's clearer now. Thanks Mike! Do you know what the Roy episode was? Not sure how to go about it, but I'd love to track down a copy of the show to watch. (My local PBS station doesn't carry it.)

Re: tools for inlay work

Mike Stallard

>You could check at

http://www.pbs.org/wws/schedule/23season.html

I think it was episode 2304. Latta did a later episode in the 2004 season on leg inlays. I haven't seen it, and I'm not sure if it has been shown. Good luck.

Saint Roy Episode

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>Here it is.

Thanks!

Jim Cosgrove

>Mike and Don--Thanks for the info. I located both tapes with Steve Latta and ordered them. One is backordered, but the other should be here soon.

--Jim

Re: Underhill/Latta inlay video

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Thanks for the heads up on this, the video arrived today. Latta essentially shows details on various tools he made for inlaying, how to layout the design, shape the inlay, etc. This was wonderful.

Pam

Re: Underhill/Latta inlay video

Mike Stallard

>I think Latta did a great job explaining in that video. I already suggested to FWW, and I'll throw it open to other magazines. I think he'd do a wonderful job on an article using line and berry inlay on doors for spice cabinets.