I have been working on celtic cross blanks made up from 2 sticks of walnut and 2 sticks of maple and found that if you cut the inserts from the same material it is possible to arrange the insert so that the maple is in the walnut area and vice versa. So since I was half way down the rabbit hole I might as well try 4 sticks of each. The first ones I did were all 1/4" sticks so the result was a 1/2" glue up that I was able to cut with a 1 mm thick X 45 mm diameter X 6.35mm bore hole. To cut the 1" squares I had to go to a 100mm diameter because the arbore hole is 27mm meaning that the clamp faces had to be at least 38mm leaving a cut depth of 31mm or 1.22". The first 100mm blade was warped so I returned that to Amazon and had it replaced with the same and surprise surprise it worked. Note the saws I am using cost about 10 bucks and I could have gotten a premium quality saw for maybe $100.00.
The first photo shows the blank in the cutting jig ready for the 4th cut and you can see that the previous inserts are properly positioned. The second photo shows it after the cut. The third photo shows it in the clamping jig, the orange clamp assures that the 2 pieces remain in line, the hand screw maintains alignment on the othe plane anf the little machinists bar clamp forces the pieces together.
The first photo shows the blank in the cutting jig ready for the 4th cut and you can see that the previous inserts are properly positioned. The second photo shows it after the cut. The third photo shows it in the clamping jig, the orange clamp assures that the 2 pieces remain in line, the hand screw maintains alignment on the othe plane anf the little machinists bar clamp forces the pieces together.