Rounding Inlays for Wood Projects

Design

• Designing a round inlay requires you to match the inside diameter of the outside inlay with the outside diameter of the inside inlay precisely. The two should be as close as possible to minimize the clearance of the pieces. You can always adjust the rounding of the two pieces by removing product to create a tight fit, but you can never add more wood to the pieces.

Receiving Inlay

• Creating the receiving portion of an inlay requires you to remove material the same size as your inlay piece. For small wood pieces such as furniture, you can use a scribe with radius arm that allows you to position the point in the middle and scribe a perfect round inlay mark. You then use a chisel, scribe or knife to remove the wood from the inner part of the scribe. For larger projects such as wood floors, you place a nail in the center position and cut out the material with a miter saw or router attached to a board nailed to the center point, guiding it in a circle.

Internal Inlay Piece

• You create the internal inlay piece by either creating the circumference using a fixed center point or creating a template from the existing receiving inlay. You can create a template by placing a piece of white or transparent material over the inlay and tracing the cutout. Cut out the template and trace the outer edge onto the internal inlay material. Using a center point and string, create the round inlay the same diameter or slightly smaller than the outer inlay.

Fit

• Rounding both the internal and external inlay materials should be done in small increments because removing too much material will ruin the inlay. For small inlays, use a sanding block or orbital sander to slowly remove wood while continuously rounding the inlay to keep it uniform. Larger inlays require a sanding block for small adjustments or a router or drill sanding bit for larger adjustments.