Marquetry/inlays

I’ve been doing some marquetry with my newly built CNC and have been experimenting with the best ways. This is what I’ve come up with so far:

1. Route the pockets in solid wood using a 3mm roughing pass and a 1mm detail pass. Depth is set to .6mm and the feed speed is set to 20% for the detail pass to keep from breaking.
2. Draw the veneers and set depth to .6mm and bit width of 1mm cutting on the shape pass using Easel. Set the cut on the shape pay.doesn’t sound like it would fit, but it fits like a glove.
3. Glue the veneer to a Masonite board using a light coat of using a light spraying of 3M 77 contact cement. Not too much,not too little.
4. Route the veneer using a 20 degree simple engraving bit at a 25% feed speed to keep from tearing.
5. Use a scraper to carefully separate the cut veneer from the Masonite.
6. Glue the veneer into the pockets using titebond II glue. I am also trying gorilla spray cement, but not sure how that will hold.
7. I tape the edges to the base using blue painters tape
8. Cure overnight and sand with grit orbiter. Thinking about trying vacuum sealing or some other press idea.

First result. A version of Malevich’s 1916 painting


Any thoughts to improve the process?

 

N

 

I’ll try that

 

I found a simple solution that works quite well. Rather than an electric pump and expensive bags, I found lots of inexpensive hand inflatable bags used for compressing clothes.