Putting a Rooster into Oak flooring.

[WhiteKnightSoftware]

This is my first significant scroll saw project and I need some help. 

I'm trying to inlay a rooster into oak flooring for my wife.  So far, it's all been testing, learning, on scraps, but I'm not sure how to continue.

I started by gluing and clamping flooring pieces to make a board big enough for the rooster, then printed rooster outlines and fastened them to the boards.  Then I cut out a rooster and a hole in another piece of wood to match.

They are close, but not close enough.  The hole is slightly smaller than the rooster.  (I used the same pattern and cut on the outside for one, inside for the other.)   Now I need to start filing, sanding, on something.  It looks like I'm going to end up with some gaps, probably due to imperfections in sawing, possibly because paper stretches, or who knows what.

As I expected, the cutout does not fit into the whole.  (Kinda of like a puzzle piece.) 

Problem is I can't tell exactly what needs to be sanded trimmed where.  I can shift the cutout slightly and that part will fit, but then another part doesn't. 

Any tips on how to determine what should be trimmed, sanded in order to not minimize the gaps when I'm done?

[julief]

Is there any way to recut it?  The only way to get the fit you need to inlay is to cut them at the same time.  In other words, put your inlay piece on top of the flooring and secure them together and cut them together.  If you are determined to make it fit, turn it all upside down and start making marks with a pencil on the areas you think you need to trim.  This is going to take some  time.  Sand it down a very little at a time until you get the fit you need.  You can fill the gaps with sawdust and glue but I don't know how well that will hold up on a floor.  Best of luck to you and show us some pictures when it's done.

[WhiteKnightSoftware]

I'm missing something.

I was able to cut the sample by drilling a hole, threading the blade through, and cutting the interior.  But if the two pieces are fastened together, and I don't want a cut in from the edge, how do I get started?

Also, I'm trying to use full thickness flooring.  Is that a mistake?
 

[jrpeteo]

Steve did a video on how to do inlay, check it out. Hope this helps.
Pete

http://youtu.be/ZjecP8KjjrU

[countryscroller]

Maybe try making the rooster inlay into a square piece, then cutting a square in the floor. It might be easier to make it fit. If you have a plunge router or something to route the square and make a nice clean cut rather than saw. Maybe an idea.

[EIEIO]

If the fit is really close, you might be able to put the Rooster in the oven at a low temperature to dry it a bit. That will make it shrink perpendicular to the grain, and it might drop in. When it adjusts again to normal moisture it will try to swell back out, but a small interference should be taken up by the floor and rooster adjusting to the shape.

[ToverT]

Pete's suggestion to watch Steve's video should solve your problem. 

Tommy T

[EIEIO]

Is it possible that your blade was a little off square so the bottom of the rooster surface is wider than the top? If so, you might sand a chamfer into the bottom edge of the rooster. That won't change the kerf where the rooster and floor meet at the top surface, and might be enough to drop it in the hole.

[Scroll Down]

If not far off would tossing the flooring in the freezer for a few hours shrink it?

I know this works with metal, never tried it with wood.

[Jim Finn]

I do a LOT of inlay work.  I suggest you look at Steve Good's video as has been suggested by Pete.  I stack two woods and hold them together with masking tape. Draw the pattern on top and drill a small hole on one of the lines.  Insert the blade there and cut out the image with scroll saw table set at a slight angle (I use two 3/8" pieces of wood and a number 5 blade and cut at 2.2 degrees.) You need to do some test pieces to find the angle needed for your thickness of wood and your saw blade. The fist time I did it this way it came out perfect enough to sell.

[julief]

You would still drill an entry hole and cut your design.  It will just be two layers instead of one.