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I'm to the point of cutting my rosette and I'm trying to figure out the best way for me. I have a Colt laminate trimmer, but I'd have to make the circle cutting jig. I have a drill press, but no "fly cutter" (that's what we called them in the machine shop where I used to work). I have chisels, but not enough skill to cut a perfect circle.
So, what do you guys & gals use? If other please specify.

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

I use a combination of the LMI rosette cutter to incise the inner and outer cuts cleanly and then the Stew Mac Dremel base and attachment for removing the stock. Either one or the other of these will work for you though if you are doing narrower multiple rings (a la' Martin) the Stew Mac is probably the better choice.

 

Router and circle cutting jig (Well / Karol type). I don't know if it is 'best', but for me it is convenient to be able to use the same jig for an infinite number of rosette patterns since I will seldom make the same exact rosette twice.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Hey Nathan

I bought a circle cutter from Sylvan Wells last month to use with a PC 310.
I can't describe how much I'm looking forward to using it and how well it's
made. Sylvan has instructions on making it on his site here, but I opted
to order one from him instead: http://www.wellsguitars.com/Articles/
Precision_Router_Base/Router_Base.html

I use fly cutters for such things but I have a ryobi cordless laminate trimmer and i'm think of either making or purchasing a circle guide for it. Or buying the stew mack guide for my dremel. The fly cutter works but i think it leaves a rougher finish in my opinion. LMI has a nice alluminum fancy multi cutter rosette cutter that looks interesting but is expensive.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

I have both the StewMac inlay base and the LMI polycarbonate(lexan)inlay base. both with the circle cutting attachments. I really line the clarity of the lexan base buy the chips don't clear as well as the StewMac base. I also like the vertical adjustment and radius adjustment systems on the LMI better. So I am in the process of creating a lexan base that is open to the outside but will use the circle cutting attachment and too depth control off the LMI unit.

My normal method of cutting the rosette channel is with the dremel and the new version of the StewMac circle cutter. With the new model dremel I find that it comes out very accurate.

If I could've voted for two methods I'd also have voted for 'by hand with chisel'. In fact the last rosette channel I cut I did with a scalpel blade mounted in a home made cutter (design stolen from Joshua) and chiselled out the trench. It was just as quick and just as accurate as using the power tools, and a lot more satisfying.

The cutter is made from BRW and cherry scrap, and works like a dream, it guarantees no fuzzy or damaged edges. In the future I will always define the edges of the trench with this tool and just remove the waste with the Dremel.




Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

   I use a modified stew mac base with an air die grinder

Dewalt laminate trimmer in the stewmac circle cutter jig (required making a baseplate).

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

I use a circular spread of air burst thermo-nuclear weapons.  It's fast and easy.

Seriously I do what Colin does, Stew-Mac router base and circle cutter, Dremel, reserved for this task with nice tight bearings, and a spiral downcut bit. 

If what I use did not work well for me, but it does, I would opt for a laminate trimmer circle cutter.

I wanted to add that I have used fly cutters, the $20 Wood Craft variety, prior and I think that this is a very dangerous tool.  Forget to tighten the wimpy set screws and you have tooled steel being launched into your shop - perhaps at you.  In addition they are unbalanced, somewhat like me....., and this imbalance will make a table top drill press walk right off a bench.......  Mine nearly fell in my bathtub - seriously.......

Hesh, I've only used one of those in a machine shop. The fly-cutter not the thermo-nuclear weapon . When I used it it was chucked into a 700lb Bridgeport mill. So, I could imagine my RIGID Drill press may not be as sturdy.

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

[QUOTE=James Orr]Hey Nathan

I bought a circle cutter from Sylvan Wells last month to use with a PC 310.
[/QUOTE]

I also purchased the circle cutter direct from Sylvan for use with my PC 310.

Glenn

I use my circle cutter and a chisel.
 



It was pretty quick, considering my level of experience.  Probably took mme an hour, maybe a little over.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I use the LMI circle cutting jig. (similar to a fly cutter).

I think it works great, but takes some time to set up.
For that reason, it's not the best way to do it if you plan on changing up your often.

I plan on getting the Dremel or Laminate trimmer circle jig to see how well that works, but haven't decided which one to go with yet....

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

I use the stew-mac circle jig with a dremel and downcut bits.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I modified the old style Stew-Mac jig for the Dremel tool by adding a spring. This allows for very fine adjustment with no back-lash.

Colin, do you have any other photos of the other sides of this sweet tool for anyone else to "borrow" that design? It looks pretty slick. Thanks.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Hesh buddy I can understand your feelings about the fly cutter. If your drill press or your chuck is at all out of round, it will show up big time with a fly cutter tool. I used to cut hundreds of plastic wheels for planetarium special effects so I lost my fear of a fly cutter long ago. I was always careful to use it with a drill press that ran much centered though.
Chuck up your longest drill into your press and see if it wobbles at all. If it does, than don’t bother with the fly cutter.
Although that has been my tool of choice for rose cutting thus far, I’m thinking I like that tool Colin and Waddy has shown us!


Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

J, this is a shot of the top of the cutter. I found that using scalpel blades with a rounded cutting surface was better than the triangular blades.

I now have two of these so that I can have blades orientated with the bevel in opposite directions for the inside and outside of the circle. A bit over the top perhaps!



Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Wow, I was sort of apprehensive creating this poll. I wasn't sure if it was "worthy", but after seeing all of the great circle cutting jigs, especially the hand made ones I'm glad I did!

Colin & Waddy,
Those are very cool jigs. I had toyed with the idea of trying to use a chisel. I may re-consider it as an option after seeing your amazing jigs.

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

Hesh,
   I have used a fly cutter many times. It works just dandy on my drill press(but I have a fair sized floor model). I can also confirm it will fly off right square into your gut (pray you have your table high enough to hit your gut and not down south ). I modified my cutter so that will never happen again, but it is a great warning for anyone who is using a fly cutter . Make sure there is no way it will be able to fly off, or things can get ugly .

   I use my router sometimes, and it works just fine. Sharp spiral downcutting bit is what I prefer. I also use my Dremel for inlay work, but not so much for regular round rosettes.


Peace,Rich

[QUOTE=Arnt] Router and circle cutting jig (Well / Karol type). I don't know if it is 'best', but for me it is convenient to be able to use the same jig for an infinite number of rosette patterns since I will seldom make the same exact rosette twice. [/QUOTE]

Ditto here. Only recently built the thing, using some scrap swamp ash, bit of brass bar stock, and a couple of hex screws, took about an hour. it's not the prettiest thing ever, but it sure works a lot more smoothly than my previous trial and error 'drill holes in the router baseplate' approach. I'll be making a 'proper' one once I get my mitts on a bit of UHMW stock.

I use the LMI jig as well with my dremel, not sure it's the best but I've been able to make it work.  John at Blue's Creek really is against using the down-cutting bits and recommends the type of burs we use in Dentistry, they are very high quality steel and do make a nice clean cut.  Just happen to spend most of my time in a Dental office so I have access to lots of different carbide burs in may different widths. However, they are not large enough across to make a very wide cut so you need to change the setting on the jig fairly often for some cuts, others are perfect with one pass.  Anybody else have trouble with the down-cutting bits?

Also, what's the best Dremel you guys are using?  Mine is a couple years old, variable speed but lousy bearings (If there are any bearings).  That's the biggest problem I see with the Dremel.

Best

Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."