Square-in-Circle Inlay Project - Part 1
Square-in-Circle Inlay Project - Part 2

In this final post about the inlay project. I turned the bowl and it came out as I anticipated. Here is the final project.

I like the maple bowl and the contrast the yellow and green inlay provide. Overall, I was pretty pleased with my first attempt at an inlay project.

Here are some things I learned from this step in the process.

1. I should have placed the inlays a bit higher up on the bowl so the inside and outside would be more similar. As it is, the outside are in the middle of the bowl, but if you look inside, the yellow circle sits on the bottom of the bowl.

2. I sanded with some very fine sandpaper. In fact, here is the progression of sanding: 220, 320, 400, 1500, 3000, 6000, 12000. I did the very fine for two reasons: 1) to see how that would improve the finish of the project, and 2) the green square was acrylic and I wanted it to shine. This sanding made the bowl look beautiful.

3. I have to find a way to hold on to the projects better when I am parting them off the lathe. As I was close to getting it off the chunk of wood it was glued to, it literally flew off the lathe, hit the concrete floor in my garage, spun in place for about 2 seconds, and then began flying across the floor to the door. Once I caught it, I immediately noticed the scuff marks. I was pretty disappointed but the project overall went well.

4. The bottom of the bowl needed to be turned smoother. You can see the ridges in it, even in the picture. Again, this was an experiment but I should have corrected that.

I enjoyed this project. It took several days to get it to the point of turning. I found myself looking forward to getting home so I could advance the project to the next step. I will be doing inlays again in some project. I am just not sure what.