Inlays in Hardwood floors

Rob V asks:

>Im about to do put down hardwood floors in my new gameroom. Part of which
>will hold a poker table. Its 4" wide maple hardwood. Id like to route some
>inlays of playing card symbols (Heart, Diamond, Spade, & Club)
>around the outside to give it a unique look.
>Ive done inlays before normal wood so im not worried about that (I have the
>tools to do it)
>
>But I have 2 questions.
>1 - the flooring is tongue & groove how deep should I route the actual
>cavity (for lack of a better word) for where symbol will sit? Should it go
>all the way thru? Is there a good rule of thumb?
>
>2 - Obviously - Im going to need contrasting woods - idealy Red and Black
>(red wood and ebony??)
>Ebony being a pretty premium price - I was thinking about staining some
>cherry red and black - but im not sure how deep the stain will go. Im
>assuming that after the inlay - the floor is then sanded and polyed - so not
>sure of how the stain will end up after sanding.
>

Redheart and ebony. I'd say go ahead and ebonize another hardwood, but...what
do you do when it's time to refinish the floor? Right now, ebony is going for
about 50 bucks a BF, but how much will you need? That's 4/4, so a resaw would
bring it into the rang eyou probably need, slightly under 3/8" of an inch. That
will give you one refinish unless the person on the sander is a real bumbler.

You might also look for some heartwood persimmon. It's hard to find and isn't
cheap and comes only in small sizes, but it is the same family as ebony, and
the heartwood of diospyros virginiana is black.

Rout the cavity to at least 1/4", no more than 3/8".

Are you doing this in individual boards, or do you plan to do it on the floor,
after the entire floor is laid?

Charlie Self
"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and
hurry off as if nothing happened." Sir Winston Churchill

I plan on doing it on the floor. Each one will be about 12"x12" spaced
about 2-3 feet apart each.

Total number would be somewhere in the 12-15 range.


"Charlie Self" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Rob V asks:
>
> >Im about to do put down hardwood floors in my new gameroom. Part of
which
> >will hold a poker table. Its 4" wide maple hardwood. Id like to route
some
> >inlays of playing card symbols (Heart, Diamond, Spade, & Club)
> >around the outside to give it a unique look.
> >Ive done inlays before normal wood so im not worried about that (I have
the
> >tools to do it)
> >
> >But I have 2 questions.
> >1 - the flooring is tongue & groove how deep should I route the actual
> >cavity (for lack of a better word) for where symbol will sit? Should it
go
> >all the way thru? Is there a good rule of thumb?
> >
> >2 - Obviously - Im going to need contrasting woods - idealy Red and Black
> >(red wood and ebony??)
> >Ebony being a pretty premium price - I was thinking about staining some
> >cherry red and black - but im not sure how deep the stain will go. Im
> >assuming that after the inlay - the floor is then sanded and polyed - so
not
> >sure of how the stain will end up after sanding.
> >
>
> Redheart and ebony. I'd say go ahead and ebonize another hardwood,
but...what
> do you do when it's time to refinish the floor? Right now, ebony is going
for
> about 50 bucks a BF, but how much will you need? That's 4/4, so a resaw
would
> bring it into the rang eyou probably need, slightly under 3/8" of an inch.
That
> will give you one refinish unless the person on the sander is a real
bumbler.
>
> You might also look for some heartwood persimmon. It's hard to find and
isn't
> cheap and comes only in small sizes, but it is the same family as ebony,
and
> the heartwood of diospyros virginiana is black.
>
> Rout the cavity to at least 1/4", no more than 3/8".
>
> Are you doing this in individual boards, or do you plan to do it on the
floor,
> after the entire floor is laid?
>
> Charlie Self
> "Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up
and
> hurry off as if nothing happened." Sir Winston Churchill

[email protected] (Charlie Self) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Rob V asks:
> the cavity to at least 1/4", no more than 3/8".
>
> Are you doing this in individual boards, or do you plan to do it on the floor,
> after the entire floor is laid?
>

The thing is if you do that after the floor is laid, then you can not
make any mistake, you got to be very careful when you rouding the
floor for your shapes. However if you carve individual woods first and
it happen to make a Ooops, you can use another pice of wood. Unless
your shapes suppose to be more thatn 2 inches width.

I would go with Ebony for sure.
Maxen


> Charlie Self
> "Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and
> hurry off as if nothing happened." Sir Winston Churchill

Rob-
I went down 3/16" for my sailboat inlay - that is plenty for lots of floor
refinishings, but stays above the nails/staples. See my web page.
-Dave
--
http://plumpe.home.mindspring.com
email: [email protected]
ANTI-SPAM: To email, replace "lastname" with "plumpe"

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 03:21:07 GMT, "Rob V" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Don't inlay a floor.

Inlay a plate, then inlay the plate into the floor. It's easier to
work and you can stop worrying about the depth of the T&G.

--
Smert' spamionam

In article <[email protected]>, Rob V
<[email protected]> wrote:

€ 1 - the flooring is tongue & groove how deep should I route the actual
€ cavity (for lack of a better word) for where symbol will sit? Should it go
€ all the way thru? Is there a good rule of thumb?

No need to go deeper than the top of the tongue & groove- that's the
limit to the life of the floor.

If I were to do this, I would use Ebony and Bloodwood or Rosewood.

I wouldn't stain it. Chosen carefully, those woods will be pretty close
to the colors you want.

Best of luck, and let us know how it comes out!

--
Lyle B. Harwood, President
Phoenix Homes, Inc.
(206) 523-9500 www.phoenixhomesinc.com

He said they'd be 12 x 12. Otherwise, you're right. A lot safer to do
in the boards before they're laid.

rhg

MaxEN wrote:

> [email protected] (Charlie Self) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>Rob V asks:
>>the cavity to at least 1/4", no more than 3/8".
>>
>>Are you doing this in individual boards, or do you plan to do it on the floor,
>>after the entire floor is laid?
>>
>
>
> The thing is if you do that after the floor is laid, then you can not
> make any mistake, you got to be very careful when you rouding the
> floor for your shapes. However if you carve individual woods first and
> it happen to make a Ooops, you can use another pice of wood. Unless
> your shapes suppose to be more thatn 2 inches width.
>
> I would go with Ebony for sure.
> Maxen
>
>
>
>>Charlie Self
>>"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and
>>hurry off as if nothing happened." Sir Winston Churchill