just to follow up on what technique I used to clamp the inlay down – I put the wood across the middle of the inlay and clamped it down on the edges. This is what it looked like:
I took the clamps off this morning and everything looked good – inlay was above the surface of the wood so i can sand / scrape it down. Here is a picture of the matching doors:
The inlay was nice and snug with not too much air space around the outsides. Any suggestions on how to close up any slight openings still around the outside of the inlay?