Small exercise in initarsia

An update, I have added the flags of The Danish Realm, Kingdom Denmark with Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The flag of the Faroe Islands is white with a red cross on the blue cross, it doesnā€™t really show up in the materials I have available, unfortunately. The Greenlandic and the Danish are red and white, just like the Canadian flag.

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Very nice! Iā€™m assuming these come off your CO2ā€¦ Thatā€™s very difficult to get right with a diode machine due to the rectangular beam. Do CO2 machines produce a tapered (relative to Z) cut? Iā€™ve tried to do some critical-fit parts with my 20W diode and struggle with both taper and variable kerf.

Yes, it was made with my OMT60W, the good old Eleksmaker I use very rarely. I have had the opportunity to play a bit with a Longer 20 Watt and am impressed by its cutting ability.

It does, but with my 2" lens itā€™s about 0.2mm on 15mm solid pine. With my thin flags (2mm) it canā€™t be felt or seen.
Hourglass effect, ( if thatā€™s what you mean) should not be a problem up to a certain distance, on either CO2 or diode machines. However, I see relatively often that nozzle heads and diode heads hang hopelessly crooked on some machines. Models where you loosen and fasten diodes with 2 screws on the front plate, without a prism clamp or dovetail system, to be focused, are the worst. Half a degree off the angle and the cut becomes inaccurate. As I said, this also applies to many CO2ā€™s.

Been wanting to try an inlayā€¦ Do you do it like this trotek video?

What type of wood works best from your experience?

:smile_cat:

Material that gives a ā€œhardā€ edge when processing. Eg. I have had good results with HDF/MDF and hard veneer is also fine. It is also ok with one ā€œsoftā€ material, it must then have an antā€™s hair more in kerf and a hammer :wink:
Colored acrylic is very exciting to work with, but it requires relatively large and thin objects that are not overly complicated. Acrylic usually has a ā€œroundā€ and a sharp edge per cut. Here it could certainly pay to play around with different lenses.

Nice.

I know you know this, but for others who may not you can get pretty close with your kerf offset by running a test pattern like this. Cut out the 10 boxes and when itā€™s done squish them all together inside the frame and measure the gap they leave on one side. Divide by the number of squares and that gets you pretty close to dialing in your kerf.

Thanks Carl, this is one of the precise test and measurement procedures. The disadvantage is that it requires sensor blades to measure the correct distance.
For the little flag project, I use leftovers that I always save for such little things. I increase my kerf by 0.025 until it fits tight, it costs a little extra material but itā€™s ā€œdiscarded scrapsā€.

Agreed, plus as you mentioned above you will likely get different results from different materials so itā€™s not a one-size-fits-all.

Excellent as a starting point. I think most of us know roughly their kerf settings and then adapt them continuously from project to project.
My kerf is ā€œnormallyā€ 0.075 mm, it gives me a tight fit in MDF. (distributed to both parts)
For flags, I have given the whole kerf to only the part that needs to be pressed in, 0.150 mm, and it fits perfectly. I have not tried using the offset function for initarsia, it should theoretically give the same result.

:smile_cat:

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This fine thread I didnā€™t think about! Thanks for that Jack. :+1:

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Ooh, I missed that thread. I like that tool. Thanks for sharing!

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Small update againā€¦
I am not completely satisfied with the usa`flag. I should have exchanged the 2 veneers, they would have fit better with the color and I have been too hard with the sandpaper, lower corner, right side. :neutral_face:

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Iā€™d love to see Wales. My ancestral home. Plus, itā€™s a cool flag. :grin:

I will find it and you will get it :+1:

Should be a fun one. Interesting details.

oops you got me!, but Iā€™ve made an initarsia with the LB logo, so the dragon in your flag will probably work too :wink:

This is for you, Chris!

Iā€™ve started to cheat a littleā€¦but I guess it still falls into the ā€œInitarsiaā€ category :wink:

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Brilliant! When the pieces get so small you need magnification and tweezers to work with them, I think you get a free pass. Lol!

The plates are only 100 x 50 mm, so the details are not easy to preserve. Iā€™m glad you like it.