Shopsmith Forums

The task make 20 butterfly inlays and route sockets to receive the inlays. With 40 machine operations I thought the quickest and easiest way would be to set up the overarm router. The first step was to make a bow tie template and rout the inlays. I was concerned it wouldn't make it thru 40 operations. The template was made from a piece of paneling and fairly soft so I soaked the edges with wood hardener. I used a piece of 7/8 in black walnut that had both a bow and a twist. This meant that that the board wouldn't lay flat on the inlay template so I set the depth as deep as possible and still route from both sides of the stock. (see I1 & I2) After splitting the board everything looked OK. Next I reconfigured the template to rout the inlay socket in the rails and styles (I3). I used a shop built hand router to clean up the inlay sockets. Next was fitting gluing planing and sanding.
The main takeaways from this setup:
I used soft pine to make the template guides and it didn't hold up to the moving of the template I used screws to fasten the template to the board. I should of used a harder stock.
I needed to clean up the chips better it created extra fiddling when fitting the inlays in the inlay sockets
lastly I should of matched the thickness of the inlays with the depth of the sockets a little closer. I made extra work for myself planing the inlays flush.
To conclude I am satisfied with the final result.

Very nice!

I will likely reference this posting sometime coming up; I appreciate your sharing the details.

Chris

Thank you!

Nice work! I’m guessing that you made five of those frames — what are they for? I’d love to see pics of the finished product(s).

Impressive! I have an overarm router (new version) that I bought thinking I had all kinds of uses for it. But I have only used it 3-4 times and frankly my results haven't been as good as yours.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:Nice work! I’m guessing that you made five of those frames — what are they for? I’d love to see pics of the finished product(s).

It,s a work in progress. So far all materials are reused so I work on it as materials become available.

algale wrote:Impressive! I have an overarm router (new version) that I bought thinking I had all kinds of uses for it. But I have only used it 3-4 times and frankly my results haven't been as good as yours.

I used a 1/8 upcut carbide spiral bit used in CNC operations with a 1/8 to 1/4 collett. It seams to produce better result than regular router bits.

Note upcut bits produce a little fuzz but down cut bits plug up if not routing thru the stock.

Excellent work. Can you explain the pin part of your system? It is either not SS or at least not like mine. Are you using two different pin sizes to get the inlay and cutout to match in size, but with the same bit? If yes, what are the pin diameters? I'm a pin routing newbie, and have not tried inlay.

- David

Nice to see someone getting some use out of their OPR.

I liked the use of the router inlay set. Those sets do a really good job of making tight fitting parts. I have both the 1/8 and 1/4" sets.

I don't know if you have a dishing bit but the OPR can be used to plane the stock down so you don't have to do much work with height issues. On thin stock double side tape it to a carrier board, in fact I even do that on thicker stock to make it easier and safer to use.

Ed

DLB wrote:Excellent work. Can you explain the pin part of your system? It is either not SS or at least not like mine. Are you using two different pin sizes to get the inlay and cutout to match in size, but with the same bit? If yes, what are the pin diameters? I'm a pin routing newbie, and have not tried inlay.

- David

I made a carrier for the router inlay collar and double faced taped it to the OHR bed. I hope the picture tells the rest of the story.