Swirl Inlay Tutorial (Table Saw Jig)

[Jon Lanier]

Here is a tutorial on the "Swirl" inlay that I use, but with a twist, this time I made a little jig for the table saw.

As you can see it is a small simple sled. I then took the sled and marked a line of what I thought would be a good angle for most pen blanks. I don't know what the exact angle is... I just eye balled it. It is more than 45 degree's of that I'm sure of.



I measure up the blank as seen here so that a little less than half the blank is covered for the cutting. (The blank is pre-cut for length for the pen kit I'm using. In this case and Atlas/Polaris/Patriot.)



I then use a couple of clamps. One for a stop block so that I get the same cut on all sides of the blank and the other to hold the blank in place while being cut.



I use my fence for pushing the sled up against. All I need to do is line up my original cut on the sled. Now just push forward until the blank is cut all the way through. Pull back, rotate the blank and repeat. And this is done until the blank has the cut on all four sides.



Normally I cut a piece of constrasting wood for the inlay and then plane it down. This time I just took some stir sticks, they fit just fine so I went for it. (The only problem was the Paduak faded into the inlay when sanded.)



To glue the inlay in place I used Thick CA then spritzed on some accelerator. And I got this little creature afterwards.



This is what the final blank looks like after cutting off the extra's and sanding down on the disc sander.



Now, just treat it as you would any other blank that you've prepped for a pen. Like I mentioned previously, I used an Atlas/Polaris/Patriot kit. And here it is as it was getting rounded on the lathe.



After shaping, sanding and putting on a CA finish. This is my final product:

[Shawn Honeychurch]

That is beautiful Jon;

I am just thinking about trying my hand at turning, and seeing what cool work you can do such as this is even more inspiration, and justification to try it.

Thanks
Shawn

[curtis rosche]

sweet nice work

[Greg Just]

Jon:

that is really cool - so simple but so effective - thanks for sharing. A great idea for the pen exchange.........

[Bernie Weishapl]

Cool Jon. Thanks for sharing.

[Skip Spaulding]

Great jig, thanks for the post. Pen looks real nice too!

[Thomas Bennett]

I like your jig a lot...the others said it all. You can do so much with a sled. Great work, beautiful pen.

[Wally Wenzel]

Very nice Jon, If you start with a 3/4in. blank how deep is the cut? Thanks Wally

[Bruce Pennell]

Thanks Jon never had any idea how it was done. Thanks for sharing,love all the idea's you get here. Thanks Bruce

[Jon Lanier]

Very nice Jon, If you start with a 3/4in. blank how deep is the cut? Thanks Wally

Less than .375 just go a little less than half way.

[Joe Chritz]

Shamelessly stolen and posted to bookmarks.

Very nice.

Joe

[Heather Thompson]

Ditto That! Thank you for a great post Jon, I am not a turner, Yet.

Heather

Shamelessly stolen and posted to bookmarks.

Very nice.

Joe

[Chris Stolicky]

Yes, thank you for the tutorial. I have yet to attempt inlays..... Looks like I need to build a sled for the TS.

[Steve Mawson]

Thanks, now have to add another project. Very nice way to make a great pen.

[Grant Davis]

Thanks Jon for posting this.