I think I finally finished my inlay journey.  See previous attempts here, here and here.   I made two different wooden projects with inlay, and aside from leaving out one important step, they turned out well.  The projects are my the “Cube Sweet Cube” signs that I have attempted to make over and over again, and a baseball bat trophy thing for my little cousin.  He is into tee ball, and has some game winning balls to display.

I milled out a deeper pocket (0.05″) and instead of filling it completely with paint, which didn’t go well, just tried to coat the inside surfaces with paint.  Thinning the acrylic with a little water helped it coat evenly.

The results were pretty good, the color was consistent, there wasn’t a voiding issue, and the surface planed clean really quickly and easily.  This was due to the very thin layer of paint on top.  The only thing that went wrong was a little bleeding into the grain.  It is worse on the red than the black.  The oak didn’t do this as bad as the pine did.  I was lazy and didn’t do any sealing, so I only have myself to blame.  No we know that is important!

Final Procedure

1. Mill text pocket with either flat or round bottom mill to at least 0.05″ deep.
2. Spray area with a sealer such as spray lacquer.  It is cheap and dries quickly.
3. Mix desired acrylic paint color with a small bit of water to make it spread easily.
4. Let dry overnight and either sand or plane off excess paint on top.

Trophy Bat

I used the shapeoko to mill out the somewhat complex area around the handle.  I could have cut this with drill bit and band saw, but this was quick and came out really well.  I don’t have enough travel to do the whole thing, so I finished the rest of it with my bandsaw.  A forstner bit made pockets for holding the balls, and a quick trip around the router made a nice round over.