What is tight fit?

[Rosanne]

Hi all, I've been scrolling a little over a year, trying different things but really tend to like intarsia/segmentation the best. My question about intarsia - since I've never seen anyone's work for real, only pictures, what is tight fit? When I fit my pieces together and look down on the work it looks ok. But once I edge glue the pieces and hold them to the light there are gaps which are inconsistent along the fit. Should one be able to see any gaps when holding up to light? It's really frustrating because everytime I try to fix it with sanding or light shaving with a blade it messes up something else. Any words or advice is most welcome. Thanks.

[lucky788scroller]

Yes, gaps are ok, to a point. As long as the gap isnt excessive, and if its an even gap all around, it is fine. Wavy gaps, or gaping holes where pieces meet is undesirable though. Advice... keep on scrolling, practice makes perfect! And, I doubt anybody will be picking up your artwork and holding them to the light to critique them, so enjoy what your doing and keep on scrolling Rosanne! Dale

[Tor]

Well, until the intarsia folks come on board, I would tend to agree with Dale. With what I do, I don't have those gaps to deal with it. I do know how frustrating it is to deal with gaps like that though. Keep trying, and you will get better, both at cutting and at the later fitting. If you are doing well enough that it looks good with a backer, you should have some happy people with what you turn out.

Tor

[jigsue]

Hi

My first intarsia piece was a stand alone piece - I soon realised why most pieces have backers. I could see daylight in my first cut, but kept cutting new pieces until it lessened. My last fit only showed a slight gap when you held it up to a light at a certain angle, so I ended up forcing a litlle wood glue and sawdust into a tiny gap with a syringe!

I would agree that with a backer, tiny gaps cannot be seen, however, my aim is always not to have them. (this is much easier with segmentaion because you are cutting from the same piece of wood, so the secret here is to be careful and selective of what and where you do the shaping)

Look at the finished article, before you glue it together and ask yourself if you are satisfied witht the standard of your completed work. Only you (and any prospective purchases) can be a judge of that. Adn, remember, the more you practice, the better you get.

Good Luck

Sue

[f250]

You will always have some gap to some extent, there is just no way to get around it. Some of the gaps will be so small as to not even look like a gap. If you look around you'll see that they all have gaps, intarsia anyways.

Don't worry about them, the flow into the piece and the shaping always help make them harder to see. Paint your backer black and poof they are gone.

Tom

[Janette]

A tip to mask those gaps...spray your backer with flat black spray paint before gluing - or if it's a small area- black magic marker.

[Intarsia 92]

I used to have trouble making all pieces fit tight, especially on large projects, due to the creep effect. I found it's much easier to eliminate gaps if you shape and glue pieces together as you go vs. cutting all pieces first, go through the shaping process and finally try to make them all fit as you glue them to the backing board.

Al

[Rolf]

One trick is to hold two pieces together edge to edge and resaw the gap, that will help remove some of the gaps.

[Bob in Whitby]

When I started doing intarsia I was also conscious of those gaps. I slowly learned a way (that works for me) to really help reduce the problem before it occurs. I figured it all starts when cutting the piece from a pattern. As you know, Intarsia can have different types of wood and grain directions joining each other.

My solution may take some time and paper but I first take the pattern and number each piece. I then photocopy the entire pattern into various 8 1/2 x 11 sections (on my personal copier) so that I have each piece of the entire pattern copied at least once (some pieces may appear on various copies - that is OK). For those long / awkward pieces I make two copies so that I have it covered. I then take this collection of copies to a copy house and get 5 copies made of each origional on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Now I have a package from which I can virtually cut out every piece of the pattern. Yes you will cut into adjoining pieces but that piece will be on another sheet. For those long / awkward pieces I place the various pieces on a lighht table and tape / glue them together and the place that "assembly" on the wood.

Then I take these pattern pieces and stick them to the specific piece of wood noting the grain direction etc. This technique can also help optimise wood usage. Now when I cut the pattern I cut DIRECTLY on the line. This means that if I cut two joining pieces then they should match perfectly. As Rolf said above any slight gap (if it needs fixing) can be done by placing the two pieces together, hold them tightly and run a No 3 or 5 blade down the line of where they join. DO NOT target getting an air tight join, but this will reduce the frustration you are having.

As I temporarily place each piece on to the backer etc. I use very thin double sided tape. I do not glue it up until I have each piece shaped and coated with a clear finish.

This works for me ---- hope it helps you. Also note the other valuable suggestions notes in previous posts. I have learned a lot from this forum and wanted to share my experience with you all.
Cheers
Bob

[workin for wood]

If it's on a table and you look down at it and it looks tight, it's good. Tight is tight, not air tight, just tight. Once the backer is on, no light can get through the super narrow gaps you might have.

I think even a 1/32 gap is generally considered still to be a tight fit. You want as tight as you can, but then if it's too tight, you can have expansion issues sometimes as well. Sounds to me like you are doing great for making a tight fit.

What drives me nuts is when you make a bunch of pieces and they fit real nice and sweet, then a month later after already being assembled and glued, they shrink a bit and leave a gap. Maybe only 1/16 of a gap, but that's a little bit more than you might want, although still not ridiculous. I've seen work where I can stick my finger in the gap...now that's a loose fit! So I'm going to say anything under a 16th is good enough to be happy with, but you want to shoot for less than that.