Thank you for the finished image @Heyward43. The result is clean and must be judged a success by any definition of the word. Opposing grain direction underlines the different materials. It was worth persevering with your tests. Very nice work!
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@ApexWoodworks - I figured someone would notice the tool marks. I, unfortunately, broke both of my 1/8" end mills last week and had to use a 1/8" ball nose. I wasnāt too worried about it since that surface doesnāt normally come into play on an inlay. Thanks for pointing that out though, Marty.
@gwilki @ApexWoodworks - Marty, I respect and understand what you are talking about. Furniture design and manufacturing Iām sure has itās own set of rules for aesthetic appearance and I also understand that. However, to me and a lot of others, CNC design and manufacturing is a different form of art. It lends itself to trying different techniques and procedures to minimize production and appearance problems. To me itās not hereās a pattern and everyone has to do it this way. Itās more of a lets watch a bunch of videos and see what appeals to me and lets me do it my way. It may not be perfect but it works. Iāve watched a lot of youtube videos and thought āwow, thereās an easier way to do thatā and sometimes there is, sometimes there isnāt. I took Grantās comments for information, just that and nothing else. We all have our own way of doing things for mostly good reasons. Again, not knocking your comments as there are some things that do need to follow accepted techniques and procedures. Thanks for the āInformationā.
Iād like to apologize to everyone here for my rather brusque comments. I would most especially like to apologize to Heyward, as it was because of me that his thread veered off on an unnecessary tangent.
I also humbly request Grant (@gwilki ) to delete my offending posts.
Sorry, everyone.
Marty from Kingston, ON, Canada
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@ApexWoodworks Done. Thank you, Marty. No harm done as far as I am concerned. Take care. Have fun. 
edit: For future reference, you can delete any post that you posted yourself.
2nd edit: Please feel free, if you like, to start a new topic about grain direction and how it pertains both to the overall strength of the piece and to its place in project design.
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@ApexWoodworks - No harm done, Marty. Like I said, considering your background, grain is one of the main considerations in design work. Thinking about the weight and strength requirements of furniture Iām sure it is very important. As you will learn in your CNC life grain is more important in appearance or aesthetics. Yes there are some areas where grain needs to be considered to provide strength as in, uh, furniture (lol). In the future of your new CNC life just keep in mind thereās more than one way to turn a grain (?). Enjoy and have fun.
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Had my LongMill for 9 months. Still have not tried an inlay yet. Nice
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@jmaree - No cause to wait. Iāve had mine for a little over 2 years and just got around to trying it. It can be frustrating but have patience. You can do it. Try the video at the top of this thread. Itās what I used and it works pretty well as you can see.
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@Heyward43 looks great. I usually rotate the grain 90 also.
Have you tried the āTapered Inlay Gadgetā Tapered Inlay (Paul Zank method) Plug with Rough Clearing: release - Page 2 - Vectric Customer
Worked great with the correct air gap dimensionā¦
The one on the right in the pic was a first attempt but I used 0.005 for the air gap instead of 0.05 so there is a glue line visible. Oops. Second attempt on the left worked just fine. The inlay is only 1/8" deep and not 0.2 like most of the videos show. I used western red cedar (fence picket) for the male plug to do a soft wood test and the stem didnāt chip or disappear completely. Female board is blue stained pine. Iāll post the crv and crv3d files to the freebies page when I get a chance.
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@RickW - Thanks for the praise. Iāll check the method you sent. Iām always looking for the easy one, lol. Mine only goes .15" which, of course, is a little more than 1/8". My pattern I used had some really thin areas and they chipped out as expected. No big deal since I knew it would probably happen. Yours on the left looks really tight. Thatās good.
@Heyward43 so far, this gadget is the easy one for me. I set a flat depth of 0.125 for the female, set the āAā value in the gadget to 0.125 and the āBā value to 0.05 for the male plug. I didnāt surface the female board first so it isnāt perfect but the test worked. I do have a few other inlays Iām going to test the gadget on to check for chip out.
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