Replies

1. 
   RMillard | Nov 18, 2008 01:40am | #1

   Paul,

        I think if you made the inlay thinner (say 3/64" thick), it would work just fine. I have never had any problems with cross grain inlays.

   Rob Millard
   http://www.americanfederalperiod.com

1. 
   Samson | Nov 18, 2008 02:01am | #2

   Rob, you are obviously an expert.  I'm curious why thickness matters?  It would seem that the problem - the table top boards expanding across their width while the long grain of the inlay doesn't move - would exist no matter the thickness??  What am I missing?  Thanks.

1. 
   scooter1 | Nov 18, 2008 03:03am | #3

   I don't know what you are missing.  I do inlay around tables' circumfrance all the time, as thin as the commercial inlays, about a 32nd, and as thick as shop made, about an eighth, and have had no issues at all.  Can't tell you why, though. Regards, Scooter"I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow." WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934

2. 
   RMillard | Nov 18, 2008 05:11am | #4

   I don't about that expert thing; I haven't even scratched the surface of woodworking knowledge.

   I said I think if it were much thinner it would work better. I say this because we all know that when wood is thin, like veneer, it behaves somewhat differently than "solid" wood. Perhaps it is more flexible and therefore better able to move with the panel. In the end, I really can't point to any hard evidence that it wouldn't work at 5/16" thick, but if the table were mine, I'd be far more comfortable with a thinner inlay.

   Rob Millardhttp://www.americanfederalperiod.com

3. 
   ring | Nov 20, 2008 11:47am | #5

   I've never seen this proven anywhere, but it seems to me that if the inlay is quite thin then it will expand and contract as needed, and not show any visible breaks. The wood fibers will "stretch alongside" each other to expand and "cramp up" next to each other to contract. The physical resistance of a thick piece wouldn't allow this to happen.
   Whatever the explanation, it seems to work with very thin stringing and other inlays.David Ring

   http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e

1. 
   Lataxe | Nov 20, 2008 12:31pm | #6

   David,I think your right about the stretching.Of the little banding I've installed most has been made of 2 pairs of very thin (around 1mm wide or less) longitudinal strips bracketing a wider strip of cross-grain wood (i.e its fibres at right angles to the length of the banding-strip. The banding I use most is one outer strip of boxwood with a parallel inner strip of ebony, a pair of which bracket a 9mm wide inner section of kingwood. The bands are 13mm wide in total and around 0.6mm thick. One buys them ready-made in metre-long bits. Where I've installed a strip across the grain of the tabletop or whatever, the inner short grain stuff often shows a number of very small separtions (only just visible), where it has been stretched (at right angles to its grain direction) and the fibres simply part. The longitudinal strips bracketing it do not part, however. Since the whole piece of stringing must be stretched, for those inner cross-grain fibres to part, then the long outer strips must be stretching.Or so I reason.Lataxe