Woodturning a Platter with Thick Inlays

What really intrigued me about building and using a CNC machine was the idea of being able to cut complex inlays that I could then wood turn. I've done several projects with this in mind, but in these projects I've always used a straight router bit to get a deep inlay. In woodturning, the inlay needs some thickness to be able to have a curved surface. What I've been trying to do over the last few months is to do v-carved inlays where you use a bit that has a point on it to carve the positive and negative of the inlay. What this allows is more pointy inside corners. You can use the tip of the tool to carve that corner. But I have found this becomes much more complicated as the inlay is now a three-dimensional object and not just a straight extrusion. There are many videos online about doing the carve inlays but none of them really talk about doing deep or thick inlays as most people are doing inlays for cutting boards or surface work. The first mistake I made early on is that I need to define the bit that I'm using very precisely in the program. The bit I was using had a 30 second of an inch diameter bullnose at the tip and I had been defining it as just a pointed bit with an infinitely pointy point. This small detail made the inlay not fit correctly. After cutting the piece that I had worked on gluing together, and had done many many tests, I thought everything was working well. However, when I cut the pieces to see how they had fit together, they still did not fit together correctly. I put the project aside for a few weeks and I thought about why I was having a problem. I think what I had done was I had made a design that looks symmetrical but I hadn't quite drawn it symmetrical. When I put the pieces together I just didn't have them oriented correctly and they didn't quite fit perfectly. So in my final iteration, I redrew my shapes to be perfectly symmetrical and thus it wouldn't matter which way they went in. And in this final piece it seems to be working fairly well. I think the other issue that I need to work through is that it takes a lot of force to glue the two angled inlays together. So I need to make some kind of press for gluing up the pieces.
After all of my experiments with inlays, I finally woodturned a simple platter on the lathe. The form was a small bowl in the center with a very wide rim. I could put the thick inlays in this wide rim. This was a first step in trying to make a not very complicated woodturning project to practice woodturning with inlays.

Tools used in this project can be found at

To see upcoming projects follow me on social media

0:00 (introduction)
1:13 (glue up)
3:33 (testing inlays)
6:19 (glue up)
8:08 (CNC)
15:00 (second attempt)
21:33 (woodturning)
24:36 (conclusion)

[rayleder]

Frank is the Steven Spielberg of filming woodworking!

[andrewmullen]

Your animation and stop motion film making is now almost on par with your wood working skill, which is outstanding, lovely bowl Frank.

[st.f]

Your perseverance and patience are incredible! Nothing seems to frustrate you so much that you throw everything in the corner and give up! My respect!

[johnritchie]

Frank - I love the stop motion and animation in this video. Great job letting us see what’s going on inside the piece.

[harrisric]

You saying, " you didn't think far enough ahead" makes me feel like I'm just winging it with every project. Great work🤙🏾

[dirktermagant]

Love watching a master of their craft problem-solve their way to learning a new skill.

[linkinprk]

Every time I want to do an inlay i have to go back to a video i watched that very clearly laid it all out for me - it wasn't nearly as complicated or hacky as yours, but maybe I wasn't doing as deep of an inlay that it mattered? This is the tutorial i have bookmarked as a refresher each time -- The VCarve Inlay Technique by Shawn Gano

[danmooney]

I think it's safe to say, that you're on another level than the rest of us!

[edwardabel]

Frank,
I appreciate your thought process and you sharing your “mistakes” as a learning experience. You thoroughly investigate your errors and show your audience your lessons learned. I am an Engineer so I am often analyzing my actions.

[johnnycentral]

My god frank, you make everyone on YouTube, woodworkers film making look like amateurs. Amazing work as always. Love your videos, and cant get enough of watching them, i always end up going back to your older videos and watch them again for the 10th time

[ThompsonsWorkshop]

It's a good start to the day when Frank posts a video. Keep them coming!

[michaellinahan]

Frank, making a 2 hour job last a month is called retirement! It is those problem solving situations that makes the grey matter work and keeps the interest up. I have been adding 'features' to my drill press (motorised up/down table, automatic lock/unlock and air or lubrication blast inspired by Marius Hornburger) for the last 2 months as I wait for parts or change the arduino code to get it working as it should.

[reginalawson]

Well that wasn't a video, but a Show!! Its truly a labor of love. Beautiful Platter!!

[andrewoatman]

Im glad that you figured out the issue and impressed and pleased that you kept plugging away at it until you had something. Weaker willed folks might have given up. I also enjoyed the recurring theme of tossing the work piece onto a surface and letting the autoclamps do the rest. Ive been watching you for 7 years and its still fresh and new yet familiar and comforting. Keep up the good work.

[wouldntyaliktono]

That stop-motion of the cross section of the test piece was amazing. Reminds me of the "WoodSwimmer" video.

[billysmether]

Gave up on clamps long ago. I just screw the work to the machine bed. Easy and quick. No obstacles. Inlays are about the bits and the depths. You should make a wood "press" to glue the inlays (like a sandwich). That will help the inlay to go down nice and straight. Nice work on a pretty sophisticated project. Thanks for video!!!

[glencrandall]

Great project. Alas there is no CNC in my life. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

[justindesilets]

in the future, no need to have a symmetrical shape, you just need to mirror the inlay and use this mirrored shape to program the cnc. when you actually "rotate" the part to glue it in, it's kinda mirroring it again so it fits perfectly!

[hitnorcal]

i have really enjoyed watching the production value of these videos increase over time. they're just fun to watch.

[austinsand]

I loved the real life section view sweep on the first failed attempt.