Modern Laser Inlay Secrets

[@johndoe6032]

This is the kind of thing that I as a hobbyist woodworker want to get from a laser. I don't have time to master hand-cut inlays and marquetry so this is my "hack" to do them. Just FYI: if the inlay is more basic and doesn't have really small areas or tight corners you can make them with a router and inlay bit set, but use the laser to create the pattern to follow. It's very yeas and comes in handy if you want to truly inlay into a piece of thick hardwood or don't want the burn marks of the laser to show on the edges of the design.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

As long as you can cut an accurate hole and calibrate your laser to cut something to fit, it will work. This inlay process is actually a lot easier with Lightburn-based lasers because Lightburn has automatic kerf compensation. I did this video originally for people with Muse 3D lasers, where all of the hard work is left to you.

[@jerrysimeone]

Thanks… going to try it on my new xtool s1. When I subscribed to your channel just now I saw it change from 999 to 1000. Yippee for you. Thanks for the great tips.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thanks for the sub!

[@olafb.2929]

Very nice project and result. Thanks for sharing and for your helpful tips.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thanks for watching!

[@cango5679]

nice video. If this would have been done with 0,6mm veneer, would the dark lines (burn wood marks) around the pieces - be less visible, or not at all?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Yes, I did another vide more recently with veneer. It really depends how much you want to spend, but in Lightburn you can compensate for the kerf of the beam and tighten up these lines. The design here was done with a CO2 laser, which tends to have a much lager beam diameter than a diode laser. ~0.3mm vs 0.1mm

[@jamesro196]

Really nice introduction. I learned a lot. Thank you!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@scorpianspirit5124]

Hi Steve, I really appreciate your style and the way you simplify a process. I have not been a subscriber after watching many of your videos, but I am a subscriber as of today. This was another great teaching video, well done ! Cheers.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Welcome aboard! If need help or want a subject covered in a video, just let me know and I'll try to help out.

[@scorpianspirit5124]

Thank you Steve, I appreciate that !

[@BirdDogPresents]

Hi Steve, As a new woodworker getting into lasers, I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your knowledge and tips. These instructional style videos are great. 😃

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Great to hear! I’m just happy people find these useful

[@thaddeusMcgee]

we bought an FSL Muse 3d this week using your code, of all of the channels we watched, yours was the one that sold us, thanks Steve!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Welcome to the channel. Hopefully the Muse meets your needs - it seems to be a great balance of simplicity and capability

[@10cryan]

Hi Steve, Love your videos, But was wondering if you could make a video on how to find what the kerf of my laser is. Thanks for the great videos!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I did a kerf video several months ago, though I almost want to do another one at some point

[@hectortorres8580]

thanks for the info especialy whit the laser shape on the machine be well

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Any time!

[@kurtanp]

Steve! This one is really handy!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thanks Kurt. This is a most useful skill to hone because it can be used for so many things

[@HouseDoctorRay]

Thank you Steve. Very thorough video. You have a new subscriber.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Welcome aboard!

[@tbas7161]

A light bulb went off! very very cool - thanks so much! new sub

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@andirachman4024]

Thank you steve...!!!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Hope it was useful

[@gregmullins1296]

Thanks for another good video!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Hopefully you get some use out it.

[@epicnoodles3633]

Hi Steve, thanks for the great video. Do you know if the laser can cut Perl and Abalone shells?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

It can certainly mark shells but you won’t cut either of these

[@cathymyers7831]

That was very interesting. Acrylic would be a very nice medium to mix with the wood.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I think so too! I thought about using red acrylic for the petals. I have another inlay video idea in my queue that would use acrylic - just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[@sleu752343]

It is nice of him to share all his knowledge but to really make an inlay pop out you have to consider the green of the wood and not just cut it all in one direction especially on the floral market tree part I know that makes it more complicated but the results are worth it

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Hi Sam, you are correct about turning the grain to improve visual appeal. However when using a laser to do this, it isn't any more complicated. Lasers don't care about grain direction so you get much more flexibility without any additional effort on your part.😀

[@karenhadden4980]

Very nice!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thanks for the visit

[@729bric]

Amazing!!!!!😍😍😍

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thank you!! Hopefully this helps you

[@kurtanp]

I never knew what the width of the blade was called. Your compensation with the vectors was fascinating.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I guess I probably should have better defined the term kerf since not everyone is a woodworker

[@kurtanp]

@@SteveMakesEverything , I was curious if I even spelled it right! I've done my time pounding nails. Its all about the cut line and make sure you take the pencil line when you cut.

[@SteveG-mc3rw]

@@kurtanp well with lashes we can avoid the pencil ✏️😀

[@abusam1]

it looks like on 6:04 the foreground layer is the larger outline (I will assume this is the pocket), and the background layer which is the smaller outline in this video is the inlays that will be cut and insert into the pocket...is that correct?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Yes this is correct,

[@congruewoodworks1474]

@3:10 talks about the laser Kerf, Thanks!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

WIth an FSL laser you need to do the Kerf calculation in your drawing program. With something like Lightburn you can just turn it on for any drawing you load into the workspace.

[@rickmccaskill7888]

How did you determine what your kerf was for your laser. Thanks for sharing.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I did a video on Kerf that will show you how to calculate it. If you use a CAD tool like Fusions or you talk to your laser with something like Lightburn you may also be able to do automatic kerf compensation

[@rickmccaskill7888]

@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks. I found it. Great explanation.

[@LowVisionUKTerrysView]

Hi. Loved this video - thank you. Im very new to the laser world, but am enjoying learning and creating with it. I need to sort my kerf out - so will try to work out what mine is for my laser. But looking forward to playing with inlays - thanks so much

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I was thinking of doing a quick video on to to accurately measure kerf. Inlays are a lot of fun but also a really nice way to add accents to any project.

[@billpennola3541]

@@SteveMakesEverything Hi Steve: Great video. Would like to see a video on sorting out the kerf on my Epilog Laser Mini 60 Watt. Let me know if you decide to do one. Thanks again.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I’ll do something about kerf since people seem to be struggling with it. I’m collecting a list of issues. What specific problems are you having?

[@LowVisionUKTerrysView]

@@SteveMakesEverything awesome. That would be great. For me, i just don’t know how to calculate the kerf for my laser and account foe it. So the process of doing this would be so very helpful

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Got it. This is the common question people ask. Maybe this will be my next video since it’s been coming up a lot in past week or two. Note that the techniques for this will apply to any laser, so you shouldn’t have to do anything special

[@elchaya22]

Very nice!!.. by any chance do you know if the lens of muse can be replaced with a different brand lens?. I need a new one. I replaced the power supply and the lens crack on the first run. I really prefer not to pay $200+ for a new lens from the FSL website.Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!!.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

When it comes down to it a lens is a lens. There are after market lenses, though because the Muse has a custom mount you will need to remove to old lens and insert the new one. The convex side goes up. Most likely your new power supply amped up the beam density and if the lens was dirty it likely heated up enough to get damaged

[@elchaya22]

@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks👍

[@mpark0]

A video on how to determine your machine’s kerf would be great

[@BosseCory]

Cut a line in material. Measure with digital calipers. That's your kerf!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Cory provides the simplest technique here, but I also did a video for kerf measurement recently, which uses an averaging technique, since the kerf isn't always exactly the same in all places on the bed.

[@stevepoole7057]

The 'chapters' are a great idea, I've not noiced that feature before!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thanks. It’s not that I want you skipping parts of the video, but it’s only realistic that some people will want to skip parts that they might already understand.

[@jowens1126]

Tell me if im understanding this correctly. The Kerf measurement your using is based upon cutting a line and measuring how fine a line it will cut? Or is itif you cut a circle 5mm in diameter and then measure the cut piece and it is 4.66mm in diameter?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Well more or less. The kerf is effectively the width of the laser beam - it is small but not inconsequential. The laser will always cut on the center of the line from your drawing, so half the beam width goes on both sides of the line. This will definitely make a 5mm circle slightly less , You can hone the kerf down a bit with great alignment and perfect focus, but it's going to be somewhere in the ranging of 0.1-0.3mm

[@woosier1]

Really nice, good walk through!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I showed this to a guy I met who is a serious inlay expert and asked if he could do a job with this quality. He laughed and asked how much time I'd give him. I told him this one took 20 minutes and now I think he's laser shopping 🤣

[@otherdogdesign8666]

Did you replace the honeycomb table in your muse? Mine came with an aluminum honeycomb so I can't use magnets for hold downs.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I didn’t. Mine is steel so it is magnetic. Maybe you need to make some pegs

[@ChippWalters]

Hi Steve, I'm a bit new to inkscape but as far as I can tell the stroke width is centered on the path outline and while it does not affect the export path, it would seem to affect the optical offset calculation. In other words, try this: set your original path to something like 3mm and try this same process and you will get a different result. My best thinking is to use your technique but to have a stroke with of zero and just use a fill color and then you'll get an accurate result.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I usually set the stroke to something small like 0.125-0.25mm, though it shouldn’t matter since the vectors are just point to point lines

[@OGMann]

It would be instructive to see how power and speed settings are determined for burning the inlay pockets. In other words, to get the depth right.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

This would be a challenge since every laser (even lasers of the same make/model) will be different. This is where it stops being engineering and starts becoming art. Sometimes you just need to experiment. What I did here was cut all the way through a piece of plywood and then laminate it onto another piece. However if you are using solid wood then you only need to worry about making the pieces fit. As long as you inlay is sticking up a bit, you can sand it smooth

[@TheFalconJetDriver]

Why is it that everyone in Canada uses Lapage glue? 🤣🛫

[@SteveMakesEverything]

For this kind of thing I do. For real workshop projects I use Titebond 3. The Lepages just happened to be within reach 😁