Good from far, but far from good. Need advice

[cloyd1980]

Hey all, I built a set of cornhole boards as a Christmas present with a maple frame, Baltic birch plywood top, and walnut inlay. This is the first time I’ve ever done an inlay on anything and it turned out ok, but not great. From a distance it looks pretty good, but when you get up close there are tiny little gaps between the walnut and the plywood. They aren’t everywhere, and I’m not sure what I did wrong or how to avoid it next time.
To help you guys troubleshoot my mistake, here’s what I did. I drew a line 3” in from the edge of the board on all sides, then set positioned my router so the bit (brand new 1/2” Diablo straight bit) just barely touched the line. I then clamped a board that had been face and edged jointed as my guide. I spent a lot of time getting the position right. Then I cut the groove 1/4” deep and 1/2” wide and repeated on all sides. Next I got my walnut and face jointed, then edge jointed. I then cut strips a little over 1/2” at the table saw and planed to thickness so it fit the groove, but not to snug (went in and came out pretty easy). 
 

sorry for the long post, but any advice on what I did wrong or could do differently next time would be appreciated!

[Tom King]

Every step of the process cannot allow errors to enter, or something won't match up perfectly.  The easy way to accomplish perfection is to spend money.  Without that, tighten up every step in the process, such as making sure the inlay piece has a perfectly straight reference edge before sawing, that the saw cuts perfectly straight, and the piece absolutely stays against the fence during the rip.

Here is an example of making it easy by spending money:

 

[BillyJack]

At this point if your I n a hurry you might have to make some woodputty from some walnut sawdust and wood glue. If not and it's finished you'll need a color stick...

[pkinneb]

Next time I would use two boards one on each side make sure you can slide the router from end to end but have zero extra play. In my opinion It's almost impossible to get a perfect edge freehand with one guide. I would also not take that much off in one pass, I would have done two which makes having two guides even more important. If the grooves are already complete then I would use a caliper to determine the widest point cut the inlay to that width and fine tune it with a hand plane. Having said that it looks pretty good for a first time and since the closet most people will ever get to a corn hole board is about 3' your good 

[wtnhighlander]

Do all that, then use epoxy mixed with fine dust from the walnut as your inlay glue. Gaps will become un-noticable.

Score the edges of the groove with a mortising gauge prior to routing, that will minimize chipping of the face ply.

[JohnG]

Good info above.

Is the gap consistent all the way around your inlay? It looks to me like it is (at least in the section shown), in which case you just need to fine tune the width of the strips. 
 

[Coop]

Again, all good advice. For your first try, I think it looks great. 

[cloyd1980]

Thanks everyone for all the tips and advice, I really appreciate it!

[Chip Sawdust]

On 12/23/2019 at 11:29 AM, Tom King said:

Here is an example of making it easy by spending money:

All problems are easier if you spend enough lol 

(he says as he looks up micro fence on the net  )

Yep, $250 plus shipping would be a Cadillac router guide for sure  at least I already have the calipers... Or one could get the deluxe set for $1k *shrug* 

[roscoewoodworker]

Since the gaps don't span the entire length consistently, I might think the router bit's cut was a little rough and possibly made less than smooth sides in the plywood for the inlay. Moving the router too fast might cause that. It's fine line between moving just the right speed along the cut and either too fast or too slow.

 Also, if you took out the entire 1/4" depth at once, the finish on the sides might improve by doing the cuts 1/8" at a time. It's also possible that the walnut wasn't completely smooth along the edges after jointing, but since you said you jointed it I assume that's not it.