Quite a while ago I decided it was time to figure out how to do inlays. The old school way is to buy a pantograph machine and make some inlay templates. You then attach a cutting tool to one end and trace the pattern at the other end while the tool cuts it.

I almost went this route but as usual I got a little side tracked. Since I’m a machine designer I decided to make my own Computer Numerical Control machine, or CNC machine for short. Basically you draw whatever inlay you want in one software, generate the cutting program in another software, then tell your machine what to cut with a third software.

With advise from a few of my mentors that do this sort of thing, I came up with the following concept. I detailed all of the engineering prints. Now I’m assembling and test driving it. When done I will be able to put any inlay I can draw on a cue, gun stock, knife, kitchen panel, whatever, anything round or flat up to 30”. Not sure where this road is going but I’m having fun getting there. I don’t have all my tooling done yet but stay tuned.