Celtic Key Pattern Inlaid Box

[edavis]

I love the look of this! How did you adjust the kerf for the inlay? I’ve been wanting to try this, but I wasn’t sure about that part of it.

[evermorian]

I used the standard Inkscape stroke-to-path approach to adjust for kerf:

Inkscape - Adjusting for Kerf in your Design

Adjusting for Kerf in Inkscape2.pdf (751.3 KB)

I also “flip mated” the pieces in an attempt to adjust for any kerf profile (the edges of a laser cut are slightly angled). That is, the inlay pieces were mirrored and cut from the opposite side than the pieces they set into.

I think this thread has some more tips on doing inlay with complex shapes:

Improving kerf adjustment on complex shapes

This is an inkscape-specific thing, but may apply elsewhere. Kerf adjustment is well-trod territory at this point, but I recently decided to see if there was anything to improve performance. The issue: when doing a “stroke-to-path” action on an irregular shape, you can sometimes see deformation of the resulting paths. The solution: add more nodes. The software is making a best-guess estimate, which you can improve with extra nodes. Illustrated: On the left, the original shape. On the righ…

I did several small test pieces to figure out exact settings for my materials and, to practice. I think I used maybe almost $2 USD worth of wood on the tests. So, I would definitely encourage that approach to get going and allay any anxiety.

There are several people active here who do inlay, if you run into problems and get stuck.

[breececonstruction]

Wow that’s very inspiring to expand my creativity

Thanks

[donnalynn829]

Lovely.