Inlay Banding Tips

Thanks, Charlie!

I have never tried this- mainly because I had no idea even how to start. You have given me the courage and knowledge to give it a try.

Lew

-- Lew- Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Thanks Charlie!!!!!!!

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Thank you! and happy new year by the way. I will have to give this a try some day. Did you make the bands or buy them made?

-- All bleeding will eventually stop.

Actually, this is from a stash of really old stuff I picked up on eBay. I wrote about it here.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charles
Thanks for the post. Don’t cut yourself short, you really are a MASTER woodworker.
Regards
DAN

-- keeping myself entertained

Thanks from me too! You make it sound doable.

-- mtnwild (Jack), It's not what you see, it's how you see it.

Charlie,
Excellent job.
Roger

-- Roger Gaborski, http://www.gaborski.com, http://www.etsy.com/shop/RogerGaborski

Great advice Charlie. Did you make the two tone banding? I’d like to try that technique. Actually the pool in the background looks very tempting when it minus 10 or 20 c these days. :)

-- Canadian Wood Chuck (Bruce)

Thanks Charlie. This was a nice primer on doing inlays. Like Lew, I have never tried this and been somewhat intimidated by the process but this definately looks doable to me.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Thanks for the suggestions Charlie. A great job. Of course having all 4 corners match on banding means you need to design the space where the bands will appear so that they are an exact multiple of the pattern.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

If I can do it, it ain’t rocket science, folks. :-)

Karson, that’s why I said “line up the banding so that the pattern match will be identical on all four corners.” You can have all four corners look the same, but still not have the pattern be continuous as it rounds the corners. You are absolutely correct that the dimensions of the piece and placement of the banding would have to be planned in advance to make that happen.

Bruce, if you mean the wider bands, those are just strips that go all the way through…. not banding.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Looks nice, Charlie.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Nice writeup Charlie. One thing I’ve found that works well for bandings that have a pattern is to cut the corners so they are identical and continuous around the bend. You’re actually cutting 2 pieces for each side, concentrating on the corners. Then at the midpoint of the inlay, cut the ends to get a symetrical piece on each end. This sometimes means you get a longer run of one color in the center, even skipping one of the pattern blocks, or a shorter pattern block in the center. But I think it’s less noticable at the center than breaking it up at the corners. Course, if you happen to get lucky enough that your pattern length works out to an even break with your channel length you can skip alll that.
The other thing I couldn’t do without are thse cheap plastic glue syringes for getting glue into the channel.

-- Use the fence Luke

Doug, that is a great tip…. I never thought of that, but the eyes are drawn to the corners. A little cheating in the middle of a long run would never be noticed.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Thanks, Charlie!

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - Please visit http://www.woodworkersguide.com and sign up for my project updates!