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Here is my process for making a simple meander. The first thing to do is to work out the design on paper. Since I had some Brazilian rosewood side trimmings that were precisely 2mm thick, and intended to use a maple veneer .6mm thick, I worked the design out on graph paper with each square representing .2mm.
Thus three squares for the maple and ten for the rosewood.
Here is the drawing:


Note each piece has been color coded to distinguish it from the adjacent pieces. There are 2 pairs each of both laminated and plain stock in wide and narrow configurations plus a single 10mm wide maple veneer strip.

Here's the lay up for gluing the veneer to the rosewood



The #2 and #4 pieces will be cut from the laminated stock.
It is very important to cut precisely to the width indicated on the graph drawing



I'm using a Proxxon table saw (also available from Micromark) with the Micromark precision fence. This saw is well scaled to pieces this size.
Precision is important, any error will accumulate in the finished lay up and throw the pattern out of whack.

I also have a smaller Micro mark saw of the type use by model makers which is neeeded to cut the veneer sheets without shattering them.



Here are the pieces, cut to size and laid out on the pattern. Beyond is the pile of 2nds. You have to be very persnickety about discarding pieces that are not the correct size or have serious flaws as this will show up in the finished product.

OK, now its time to glue up the log. I've made a plexiglass jig that is cut to 90 degrees to help align the pieces.



I'm using Titebond...it dries quickly to facilitate assembly.

Once dry, the rest of the pieces are added and clamped



Here's a close up



Now the log is sawn into 2mm tiles with the thin kerf blade of the Micromark model saw.



This log produced 48 tiles which will be just enough for two rosettes.



Here is a detail of the finished tile.

NICE David!!!
It's really great that you are doing & showing how to do all the great Torres inlays !
Thanks for showing us all your great work.
Mike

P.S. heading to Toga next weekend for the woodworkers show??

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Mike Collins

Very cool...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thanks, David. It is a very good tutorial on making this pattern.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks for teaching us your beautiful execution of this timeless classic.

Cool!
Thanks, David.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Thanks for making that look very easy. When you get to making the rosette, would you mind posting that to this thread as well. I think it would make a fabulous addition to the tutorial pages.

Great stuff.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Beautiful work, David. Great photos. Thanks for the tutorial. Let us see the rosette when it's done, please.

Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Nice Dave, an excellent technique. I'm going to make a copy for my shop notebook.

I used to use one of those micro-mark table saws, they work amazingly well, remarkable for such a small saw.

OK, for those of you who asked here are the next steps.

This is my work board, it's a piece of pine (easy to pin into) covered with release sheets from double faced adhesive. The mahogany disk is cut at 90 mm. The disk is waxed to prevent glue from sticking.The central rod centers the disk and figures later in the process.


Here are the components of the rosette, meander tiles, rosewood wedges also cut at 2mm, simple layered marquetry strips, .6mm Rosewood and maple veneer strips.



The veneer strips and marquetry strips are all heated through a moist cloth using a banding iron. This softens them so that they easily make the radius of the form.



Here is the first rosewood strip positioned, the marquetry strip comes next followed by the bordering maple strip.



The inner edges of the tiles are hand radiused with an exacto knife
Next the wedges and tiles are worked around the radius. These are alternated and held in place with push pins. I'm using fish glue for the assembly and checking to keep the pattern tangential to the center. Any slight variance as you go can be adjusted by making small bevel cuts to the tiles.




I work the tiles and wedges around to the point where the gap left will be covered by the fret board.

As mentioned, this is where the post comes in, for the Stew Mac dremel attachment which is used to trim and true up the tiles.






The outside rings are now added (in reverse order to the inner rings). Again, using the banding iron trough a wet cloth to soften them.



Here's the rosette completely assembled.

Dave, Your circle cutter looks like it has a 1/4 inch post instead of the stew mac standard 3/16, 1/4 would be nice, did you make it yourself? Also, I use wax paper but the double stick stuff looks like a better idea, can you recommend a source?

Marc, I just substituted the 1/4" post supplied with my LMI hand rosette cutter and reamed the Stew Mac jig. I use both for cutting the rosette channel in the top.
I get the release sheets as scrap from the laminating operation at work.......perhaps a photo mural place would have scrap?

WOW David, that is a very neat operation, and extremely generous of you to share your technique with us , at what degree do you cut the small wedges ? are the angles 2 mm ? I am still in the inch mode ! LOL thanks Jody

Nice, David. I'm glad to see how to use a work board for building a rosette. This way lets you work easily from the inside out.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

David, brilliant and beautiful work. I almost missed this thread. Putting together photo essays like this takes a lot of time and I certainly appreciate the effort and knowledge passed on. Thank you!

You have the makings of good article for GuitarMaker here. They are always looking for material and this thread could readily be converted into a very worthwhile article.

Very cool David. Are you going to be making that rosette your standard? It looked great on your number 90 you posted.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

I think so Joshua, this one is simpler and bolder as well. I would like to find a design that isn't too labor intensive..............I think I may be zeroing in on it.......

Best!