Cutting the perfect inlay

Now that we have our inlay templates made it is time to cut out our parts for the project. Cut the inserts first; you will need the inserts to set the depth of cut for the cavity (inlay) in the plaque.

I began by cutting out enough pins to make five plaques plus a few spare parts, just in case. To do this I tacked the template onto the jig and inserted a piece of maple. Setting the depth of cut to about 5/16 of an inch, I moved the router in a clockwise direction inside the cut-out, again not using the extra ring that comes with the inlay kit. It's a good idea to keep some outward pressure on the router, so that it follows the inside of the cut-out. If you are moving the router clockwise it should naturally "pull" toward the outside, whereas, if you were routing counterclockwise, it would tend to drift away from the edge.

I removed the maple from the jig and used my table saw to cut off the end of the board that contained the pins.

I cut the insets from the maple board using my band saw. I set the fence to about 3/16 inch from the blade and used a push stick to run the board through while keeping it tight against the fence.

Make sure you use a push stick -- it is very easy to have an accident when performing this step. I used a 1/2 inch blade that has widely spaced teeth for this step. The thinner blades tend to drift a bit, and the finer teeth can't clear away enough waste. You have to take your time and let the saw do the job; too much pressure on the wood can cause the blade to wander.

I labeled the pieced "left" and "right". Even though the two holes in the template were made from the same model pin, I found just a slight difference in them, so I learned the hard way to label my pieces.

Now that the inserts are cut out, it's time to cut the cavities in the plaque. I installed the blank plaque into the jig, using shims to keep it tight to the left. For shims, I used three thin scraps from other wood working projects. I found it easiest to put in two strips and slide the third piece between the others. The use of shims avoids the use of clamps.

To cut the inlays you must now install the outer ring on the kit. It contains an o-ring that keeps it firmly attached to the smaller ring. To set the depth of cut, I placed the router on the jig with the ring inside the cut-out and plunged the it down until it just barely touched the plaque. Then I place the insert (pin) on the depth stop, and slid the depth rod down onto the insert and tightened it in place. Now I released the router, took out the pin and began routing out the cavity into which the pin will be placed. The trick here is not to route it too deeply. It is better to have the insert a bit higher than the plaque and sand it level later.

Now I routed clockwise around the inside of the cut-out, then back and forth to clean out the entire area. Of course I missed a few small spots, so I cleaned them out with a chisel. I repeated with the second cut-out. Then I repeated the whole process using some walnut for the bowling ball.

In the next section we will put the whole thing together.

[Step 1: make a template][Step 2: cut pieces][Step 3: finish]