Official Luthiers Forum!

OLFers,

After a few months of being busy with making a tenor ukulele and a guitar
amp, I recently started another "real guitar", which will be #3 for me
(nor counting the uke). Like #2 it will be made from the OLF SJ plans.

I have a lovely curly cherry B & S set that I'm going to use and I thought
I would use a spalted Maple rosette blank that came from Zootland for a
solid wood rosette. I own one of those LMI drill press rosette cutters, which
I use both to make the ring and to route the installation grooves in the top

Being spalted, it looks kind of "punky", and I seem to remember reading
someone advise flooding spalted wood with Superglue before trying to
work it. I want to avoid chipping along the edges.

So I plan to get some low viscosity (i.e., "runny") Superglue and apply it liberally
to both sides of the rosette blank before routing out the ring.

Does this sound right? Other than maximizing ventilation, does anyone
have any advice on doing this? Should I only apply the Superglue to one
side to avoid gluing problems later (I'll probably use LMI white glue or HHG
to install the rosette and more thin Superglue - after applying shellac to
the top as a sealer - for the surrounding BWB veneer lines.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric,

I use spalt a lot and I think you are on the right track. I use west systems epoxy instead of superglue. The superglue can darken it in a wierd way. The epoxy will darken it too, but not as bad. If it is only a little soft then I would just install it dry and then rough level it. Then I paint on the epoxy (be careful not to get any on the top, it will stain it if it sits too long) and then sand level. If you sand it to a fine grit without the epoxy in there many times the darker lines will stain the lighter wood a gray color and it is super hard to get out. Good luck!

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I just made my first spalted maple rosette and it was really easy. I used the stew mac circle cutting jig with my dremel. I didn't use any superglue at all and had no problems. But on a drill press, that may be a problem. Another great tip another builder showed me was after making the rosette, if you find you want some more dark lines in the rosette, just break it in an area where you want the line. Then take a sharpy and blacken the joint. You can break it into many pieces, and when you install the rosette, you can glue them in piece by piece. When you break it, it follows the grain, so the black lines will look totally natural. I tried it on some scrap and it worked beautifully! Good luck!

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I don't have any West Systems epoxy, but I do have ZPoxy
finishing epoxy for pore filling. Would that work? (I don't like
the fumes associated with SuperGlue and the potential darkening
sounds like something I should try on scrap first).

Eric

Eric,

I have never used zpoxy but I suppose it would work fine. Try it on a scrap first. I want to say too that it can work fine with nothing at all except the wood, it is just a little harder to get it perfect. Another issue is that the spalt will sand faster even than the spruce so when doing the final sanding the rosette will be lower than the top. The epoxy toughens it up some. Post some pictures, we would all love to see it!

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I cut up a piece of spalted maple tonight after reading this thread, glued it up and ran it through the drum sander. Just a hint of "bleed" around some of the lines. Obviously related to how pithy the wood is. If I use one of these I'll try sealing after inlaying, just before level sanding with the top. Thanks for the info.

_________________
Doug Mills
Chicago, Illinois

I too flood the punkier spalt with CA ... I figure I am CAing it to the veneer backer as shown above in Dmills photo anyway, so why not. The fumes can be a PITA, and they also show up when flatsanding in the thickness sander as well. A lot of times with other woods, like braz or whatever, I glue it tothe veneer, cut the ring out, then touch sand the veneer off the back to getthe ring a little thinner prior to install. With spalt I will sometimes glue the pieces to the veneer upside down, then thickness the ring approppriately, and install it upside down in the rosette trough as well. Leave it proud some, then thickness sand off the veneer to get the real rosette ring back. It helps keep it all together.

And a great trick was mentioned to add spalt to weaker looking areas if need be above with the marker .. when I do it though, I add a little ebony dust into the break, then put it back together with ca

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I prefer not to darken the wood with super glue either. What has worked for me is to use a .020 fiber backing. You can get sheets of it for making your own purflings. I glue the rosette material to the fiber sheet. If the rosette material is stable, I use white glue, but place weights on it to keep the material from moving too much due to the moisture. If the wood is more figured (e.g burl veneer), I'll use epoxy (weight is always good ). The fiber provides great support and strength. After this, it’s really a matter of having a sharp tool. As long as your cutter is sharp, you will end up with a crisp edge and a rosette that will survive being handled and maneuvered into the rosette channel.

Joe