Alvah,
I'm not great a inletting, and have improved from appalling to OK with a bit of practice.
Take these comments as constructive, from someone who has buggered up a lot of inlets.
I think those gaps are going to notice when you sand down the lock panel. So be it. Not much to be done at this point.
Hard to tell from the pictures, but my guess is that you are the victim of chisels that are not sharp enough, as well as poor chisel shape choice and a bit of poor technique. Add to that, it looks to me like a bit of hurrying and frustration. Again, all criticism intended as constructive rather then negative.
Try some practice into a scrap piece of wood. Not Pine, something hard like Maple.
There are tutorials on inletting on this forum. Have a look at them.
Here's a few things that have worked for me. They are techniques, not absolutes.
Sharpen your chisels razor sharp. Easily cutting paper sharp. This is difficult to learn, at least for me....
Make sure you have a good bevel on the piece you are going to inlet. Doesn't need to be dramatic, just a few degrees.
I have found the best success with laying the piece down and scribing a line around it with a sharp point or knife. Be sure to scribe the line close to the bottom, or inward, part of the bevel. I.E. The line should be just a smidge inside the outermost edge of the piece to be inlet, along the slightly reduced inner edge due to the bevel if that makes sense.
This scribe line then gives your chisel two things: a line to sit in as you stab in, and a well defined line with which to choose the right curvature of chisel. If you pick achisel and lay it in that scribed line, it needs to fit. If it doesn't, choose another chisel. If you don't have the right curve, choose a very narrow flat chisel and make several overlapping stab cuts.
For me, as a lower than average inletter, establishing a clean initial inletting line is the key. From there, I am likely to scrape the edge of the inlet to expand it, rather than stab a new cut. Takes me some time, but I find it is cleaner at my skill level. This is especially true if your bevel on the inlet piece is not too steep. I think an error I made initially was to do a steep bevel, which makes your initial stab cut somewhat irrelevant.
I hope that helps,
Norm.
