Thread: Really good tool for cutting dadoes/grooves for veneers inlays.

I have both the Veritas large router plane and the inlay cutter head, the latter is a bit of a PITA to use as the knives come neither sharp nor evenly ground. It can be made to work with careful honing and a bit of reshaping.

The router is a beaut piece of kit although the fence is a bit insubstantial. I purchased mine directly from Lee Valley along with several additional blades; shipped price at the time was less than the walk in price from Carbatec for just the router body.

Thanks Chief.
I'm thinking of buying the box set with the additional metric blades as well as the inlay head.
Thanks for your opinion.

And it seems that Lee Valley direct purchase prices, and the import tax and local reseller product prices from LV make it cheaper to buy direct from LV.
It's a shame as it limits the shops that stock LV products, and I always want to inspect visually, handle and use the tool before I buy. But LV's Vetitus pricing, freight, reputation for high quality products and spectacular customer service makes web purchases from them a great option. But a store in each capital city here in Aus with a full range of Veritas tools, priced competitively, would be so much better.
Come on Lee Valley and Rob Lee, could you shave off a few % more off prices for local stockists. A few innovative programs like "buy 2 or more LV products and go in to win xyz" would help getting a stock range into Australian resellers.

Chief,
The Veritas Large Router adjustment mechanism is 1 mm per turn, from what I remember. I guess you need to measure veneer thickness, then use a gauge to set the cutting depth? Allowing for glue bed. To minimise sanding after the veneer inlay glue sets?

Close... it’s 32tpi which is as near as dammit 0.8mm pitch. It’s fine enough for anything I ever expect to do!

The instructions advise that you make the scoring cut full depth in one pass; the expectation is that your inlay will be only 0.5mm thick max. Once scored then the waste is hogged out with the closest width cutter you have available. And do some test cuts on scrap first.

When running with the grain I have found that you can go a smidge deeper. Against the grain however; that is a different matter. US and Canadian hardwoods are a bit softer than our timbers; karri, jarrah and anything with the suffix “gum” definitely tax edged tools. Tassie oak is probably about as hard as you’d want to try inlaying with this tool.

As mentioned earlier also; the blades need a bit of attention. They need to be properly honed or they just tear across the grain. Mine also needed some reshaping; when assembled in the holder one would protrude about a 0.2mm-ish lower than the other.

Excellent advice Chief, greatly appreciated.