GET INLAID

So as I may have mentioned, I’ve been in a bit of a funk. Work is tedious in the extreme (which is, of course, the nature of work), and I was really looking forward to doing something productive with my inlay project. It’s meaningful; I can see progress. That’ll pick me up!

Ha.

It started out all right. I was well-provisioned with animal crackers.

It was after lunch, and I thought I’d get a head start on scribing around the shell pieces before I went back to work. I took it out of the clamped setup and it looked good.

The problem with scribing with an Exacto knife is that it’s flat, and it doesn’t corner very well. And once it gets going, momentum carries it along, even if where it’s going is very wrong. So you end up with ugly slices across and beyond the wood.

I imagine I’d be able to sand them out, but that’s extra work I didn’t need because of poor scribing. Problem is, the more rounded scribe I bought tends to rip the wood, causing rough edges instead of clean one, and doesn’t get as close as I would like. And a pencil doesn’t get in close enough, leaving noticeable gaps post-routing. I tried ALL of them several times in the process of scribing this piece and was not happy with my performance with any of them. The fact that this piece is made entirely of curves, many of them very tight (like on the flowers), whereas my first projects had only straight edges, I’m sure adds to the level of difficulty/frustration.

Exacto knife slippage also caused me to put a nice slash right across this piece of shell, which could’ve broken it if I’d hit it right, and into the wood beyond it. The fact that the knife is slipping also is a safety concern. We are not amused.

The real wood also dulls the Exacto knife. The one on top has no point left, as you can see when compared to a fresh blade. The Exacto knife has many strikes against it. Another problem was the use of the Elmer’s glue. In places where it bubbled out, it made it hard to cut the wood, and the glue didn’t seem willing to yield to the knife, even when I tried to scrape it away. I wanted to use Elmer’s because when I use the superglue a) I glue my fingers together, and b) the bond is somewhat tighter than optimal, which increases the likelihood of breaking the delicate pieces when I remove after scribing and before routing. There’s got to be a better way, if only I could find it.

You can see slices all over the maple in this shot—around the #11 flower, a huge gash toward the bottom where the knife slipped, and at the end of the curlicue. I decided to go over the scribed line in pencil as well to make it more visible while routing.

Okay, so everything has been scribed, and the pieces picked up. I broke another piece of shell removing it, but the paper pattern held it together enough that I’ll use it anyway.

So here’s the routed piece. I suck at routing. It looks okay in isolation, but I know where all my mistakes and over-routing happened. I don’t seem to have the hands to hold it steady and guide it while moving at the same time. Also, the bit size was too big for the pointed ends of some of the pieces, and all my internet research does not seem to be able to come up with a router bit smaller than 1/32”. I’m not sure how you do precision cutting and corners like that, but I’ve seen amazing precision inlay work. I know it’s possible, even if it’s not currently possible for me. Perhaps micro chisels and gouges?

So I try to put the pieces in to assess the extent of the crappiness. As you can see, there are pieces sticking up everywhere, and there are other places, like the bottom tail end, where the piece is drowning in open space. Sigh.

So here it is with all the pieces as in as they were going to get, with the worst problems circled in red.  From the top, we have
•the edge of #1 not lying in the cavity fully and sticking up
•flower #4 swimming in its space
•flower #15 both misshapen AND in a space too big for it
•a routing gouge between pieces #7 and #10
•#8 is sticking up
•bad routing on both sides of #10
•flower #11 also swimming in its space
•another routing gouge along the left side of #12 and
•pieces #13 and #14 in a space giving the Grand Canyon a run for its money.

There are close-ups in my Flickr photos of all the damage. I was so disgusted, disheartened, and discouraged. I pondered trying to make it work anyway, without having any idea how I could, for about 45 seconds. And then I decided that that was unacceptable. If I’m going to do it, I need to do it right, and I need to do it over and over again until I do. If this had been a real project, I would’ve just ruined a guitar. I shudder at the thought.

So I dug out all the shell pieces and put them back in their box. Then I flipped the wood over, which has a split visible only from the one side, to see if I had enough room to do the design again on the other side. Seems that I do.

Then I went into the house armed with my Micromark and Stew-Mac catalogs. I know 85% of the problem is my lack of facility with both tools and materials. But I also know that my tools are not optimal, because I’m fighting them. They are the antitools! So I ordered a needle point scribing awl, a set of fine and extra-fine saw blades, since I think my mediums are creating too wide a kerf, and 2 different knives—a micro knife and a swivel knife that is supposed to corner better. When they come, I’ll try it again. The other issue I have is that it’s hard for me to see where I’m routing, since the router base is opaque metal. The Luthier’s Mercantile sells a transparent router base that I’ve looked at before, but passed on because it’s pretty spendy. However, if the better cutting tools don’t make the difference, I’m going to get it.

And if that doesn’t help, I’m in big trouble.

I started the afternoon with modest aspirations. I had 3 pieces to recut to replace those I’d broken during the first round. I wanted to get those cut, and the whole shebang arranged and glued to the maple so it could dry and I could scribe around all the pieces sometime this week. I keep finding that if I start scribing before the glue has cured, I invariably move some of the pieces slightly, sometimes imperceptibly, and then I go ahead and scribe around them and rout the cavity, only to find it’s kittywompus and doesn’t want to fit.

I got through the first two pieces without incident or bloodshed, and was doing wonderful things with piece #5, the skinniest piece of the bunch. I swear, there was only a single millimeter to cut when the bastard broke. Look at that, and feel my pain.

I decided this project has languished long enough, and I’d go ahead and use the piece as 2 pieces anyway; if I cut another one at this point, it was equally likely to break, and basta! Already.

So all the pieces were cut and ready to go.

I did a test run on the pattern, just to make sure I had everything. I didn’t; 3 pieces were stowaways in the box. I found them just before I started cursing myself out for forgetting to make them in the first place, and blowing the whole day’s work because I was going to have to glue more patterns and wait and saw another day.

Then, piece by piece, I glued them with regular Elmer’s white glue onto the maple. I’m not sure the layout is precise; seems there’s a wider swing out on the wood than there in the pattern; I’ll have to figure out a way to deal with that issue in future, where precision is going to matter.

Once the pieces were in place, I wrapped the wood with a piece of wax paper and clamped it with a piece of alder to put steady pressure more or less along the length of the piece so the glue could cure in peace overnight. I wanted to use 2 clamps, but my other clamp wasn’t big enough.

On the clamping bench, in the upper right corner, you can see a piece of new shop equipment, a wee broom and a dustpan. They hang on the bench now, and are very handy. I’m collecting sawdust for a friend who wants it to make pin cushions.

Also new in the shop is a tracing table, for transferring designs.

And I also picked up a nifty new ruler. It’s flexible, for making clean lines when drawing curves. You put it in the shape you want, and it stays that way! I noticed my hand-drawn vine lines were not very smooth, and decided I could use some help. I had gone to the store looking for a French Curve set, but this ruler was right next to it, and seemed both literally and usefully more flexible.

I wanted to get more done this weekend, but Saturday was a total wash of a day, so I’m glad I got at least this much done. I hope to get it scribed Monday night. Routing will need to wait, probably, as routing while tired seems like a good way to end up throwing a chunk of maple into the fireplace, and my weekend is already spoken for with the cruise. If only I didn’t have this damn job getting in the way! Of course, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to finance this particular continuing education.