Some of you may remember the thread from a couple weeks ago where I made some homemade rope and tiles for a classical rosette. Well I finally got around to finishing the rosette and inlaying everything. Posted below are a few pics and the process I use.
This first pic is the quick solution I came up with to make all the tiles fit a 4 inch circle. I basically routed a channel the correct size and then inserted each tile one at a time. A couple swipes with the file on each side and the tiles were ready to go. Although simple, there has to be an easier way than this for the next time...
Using my Dremel and circle cutter jig from LMI, I carefully route out the channel for the tiles
Next I dry fit all the tiles into the channel to make sure everything fits tight
Once everything fits, I wick CA between all the tiles in the channel, and then give it a quick shot of accelerator. You'll also notice in this pic that there is a channel routed on the inside and outside of the tiles. Once the tiles are secure, these channels are routed taking off just a sliver of material so the inside and outside of the tiles have a good radius instead of flat surface.
Next I take the rope and all the veneer layers and dry fit into the channel.
I next apply a layer of Gorilla glue and inlay all the layers. I dampen the top with a sponge so all the purflings will swell a bit and fit nice and tight.
Once it all dries I scrape the outer layer flat, and then repeat the process with the inner layers.
Inner layers glued up and drying. I like the Gorilla glue because it foams up between everything and makes a very tight and secure fit.
Once it's all dry I plane and scrape the entire rosette flush. You need to be very careful so your plane doesn't tear out the tiles. The tiles are the equivalent of planing endgrain. The final rosette is a total of 21 layers as follows starting from the outside working in:
rosewood/maple/ebony/rope/ebony/maple/orange/ebony/red/rosew ood/tile/rosewood/red/ebony/orange/maple/ebony/rope/ebony/ma ple/rosewood.
Enjoy!
John
