Progress!

posted: Mon 30th Apr, 2007, categories: Uncategorized

I had decided to do the design twice, in two different sizes, and I needed to saw out the pieces for the second design Saturday, and finished my sawing on Sunday. As I was pondering the 2nd design, I decided also to try something that had been suggested in my books, which was to fill in the empty space of the design with the same kind of wood as the ground, so that ultimately you ended up with a single plate, and a single cavity (with no fiddly bits) to rout.

So I trimmed off a section of ebony from the piece I was going to inlay, and put the patterns on them the other day, and it was ready to saw. Ebony is a hardwood, but it’s a lot softer than shell, and dusty! I can understand now why Larry Robinson suggested 1/8” wood for inlay. That’s what this was, and it had a tendency to split along the grain lines as it was. Which means that the 1/16th inch maple I bought is unlikely to survive the sawing, and I’m going to have to get more in the greater thickness. But I need to make a trip to Woodcraft anyway. More on that later.
Cutting out filler pieces of ebony so I only have to rout a single cavity on the smaller design.

In a moment that filled my heart with pride, I got all of the pieces not only cut out without breaking them, but when I put them together they all fit, first try, without any additional filing or fudging! That can only mean that my sawing is getting more accurate. Yay!
Would you believe that this all fit together first try???

So I glued the pieces together and then worked on scribing the bigger piece already Duco-cemented to the ebony. Because it was all straight lines, it went quite well using the Exacto knife, and because I was judicious with the cement, it popped right off.
After the scribing of the larger design. Nice.

I cleaned the glue off and then went over the lines with my knife to make them deeper and easier to see, and also to define inside corners, where it’s hard to get the knife into.
Scribed, and then gone over again for a nice clear outline.

By then, the smaller piece was set, and I worked on cleaning up the dried excess superglue off its edges with the Exacto knife, checking it in the light to see if I got it all. At that point I could see some minor gaps between the pieces, but they’ll be unnoticeable once the piece is actually inlaid.
The smaller design. You can see a bit of light through it.

I placed it on the ebony below and to the right of its big brother and cemented it down. While that set, I did a little gardening out front while they dried. When I got back in, I started scribing it.
Getting ready to scribe the smaller of the 2 designs.

I jumped the gun a bit, though, because the piece came loose half-way through the scribing. Doh! So I lined it up again, clamped the side that was done and finished the scribing.
Had to clamp this while scribing, as it moved on me. I should've let the Duco cure longer.

Then I unclamped the piece and went over the lines just like the other one. The smaller star, which will be scribed in a single cavity.

I finished up by scraping chalk dust onto the wood and rubbing it into the scribed lines to highlight them prior to routing.

Filling scribed lines with chalk dust.

And if I had stopped here, the day would’ve been an unqualified success. Good sawing. Good assembly. Good scribing. However, I decided to press on to routing. More on that tomorrow…