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3 attempts at a rosette so far 1st I used a cicrle cutter and veneer and chiseled between scored lines, but the veneer 0.6mm kept breaking and looked ugly, so then made one from 3mm mahogany glued it into the existing channel. Once the glue had dried I sanded back and ended up going through it, in places. Then to top it all the soundboard warped I assume because of the moisture in the glue the soundboard is currently 2.8-3mm thick, guess I'll buy a dremel router base and do it properly!

How's your day been?

John

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

Pretty Good so far!

Thanks for asking!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

John buddy the Dremel circle cutter base from Stew-Mac works great and it's what I use. The Dremel brand circle cutter is not a very nice tool IMHO and I got rid of mine.

Many folks will use a laminate trimmer in a circle cutter too and you will need a laminate trimmer to cut the binding channels as well. Perhaps consider getting one and then check the archives or ask the forum how to make a great DIY base and Bob's your uncle.

Sorry that you had a bad day. The guy who taught me to play golf would only let me use a 5 iron for everything - including putting...... And this lasted for an entire year too. He also used to say that the wonderful thing about golf is that no matter how badly you screw up your last shot it's just the shot that you hit then and has no bearing what so ever on how badly you have an opportunity to screw up the next shot.......

Hesh I'd love to get the Stew-Mac precision router base and soundhole jig, but that'd cost £60 without cutter delivery adds £15 then 20% it'd end up costing me closer to £100 than the £20 for the dremel one I tried with a chisel but couldn't get an even depth. So will give the dremel a go laminated up all my scraps of thin mahogany as well to this is now a last ditch attempt unless I stain some oak scraps I have then I'd be worried about the stain leaching into the spruce. Which is on thickness already I know should of done this first.

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

John, you probably sanded through the mahogany because your channel depth was inconsistant. One way I've learned to check the depth of a rosette channel is to hold the top up to a strong light source in the area that you want to check. the lighter areas in the channel will be thinner and the darker ones are thicker. This is one way to get a fairly consistant depth of cut without having a thickness gauge to check it with.

You could probably just cut the mahogany out of the channel and try again using this method. It's a thought anyway.

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Oh definatly not going to waste the top and will redo the rosette just was gonna redo it with a router not chisel had bit which came out brilliant and other areas where I kept having to change direction with a dremel router I'll solve both depth and chiselling problems and probably open up a can of worms in the splintering department

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

I haven't used the dremel circle cutter so I don't know, but it sounds like Hesh knows from experience.

What I do know is that I'd rather spend close to $100 for the Stew Mac circle cutting jig than spending $120 for the Stew Mac jig Plus the Dremel circle cutting jig after I realize the Dremel just doesn't work well.

You might keep that in mind. I think it follows the rule of "buy as quality of a tool as you can afford, and you won't regret it"

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

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

I made one of these:

http://www.wellsguitars.com/Articles/Precision_Router_Base/Router_Base.html

Couldn't be happier...

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Gabriel Regalbuto
Carlsbad, California
Freedom 35!

Gabe has a good idea. I bought one of Sylvan's very fine router bases and it was excellent in all respects. You can make these for probably under $10 and if I recall there are other variations on this jig too that can be found in the archives. Not sure but I think that Tony Karol designed and made one too. Perhaps he will weigh-in here.

I was going to post a link to the archives for you but I am not searching correctly and coming up blank but I know we have had discussions on this prior.

Hi John,
I just did my first rosette ever a couple of weeks ago with a manual Lmi circle cutter that forum member Ozziebluesman (Alan) recommended, and a 1/4" chisel. I followed the instructions laid out in "Tradition and Technology by Cumpiano & Natelson", and It turned out ok for a first rosette. I did a few (about 4 or 5) practice channels on scrap before attempting the real thing. I made simple wood rosette. I followed Cumpiano & Natelson's advice by making several concentric cuts in the rosette to better control the depth of the channel, and used the chisel bevel side down (entirely) to remove the material.

I feel that doing it by hand was very rewarding, but takes a little planing, and attention. You can adjust the depth of the blade. It's kind of pricey, but well worth It. At first I regretted buying the LMI cutter and not a dremel but now I'm glad I did.

Attached is a photo of the circle cutter.

I use a home made version on the Wells / Karol circle jig as well, it is the best one I've tried so far. Other options are a fly cutter in the drill press or a router base with multiple center holes in it. The "Popsicle stick" method works well, but for a wider rosette channel a small router plane, like a Stanley #271, is much better at excavating to a consistent depth than a chisel.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Gone back with a flycutter in a carpenters brace, then leveled with chisel varying 1.3mm and 1.5mm deep so thats gotta do having fun with inlay noe have a circle cutter for card and works well, but with wood it have a tendancy to flex a little giving a ring of varying diameters so in the morning I'm gonna stick it on a sacrifical piece of wood and try turning in the lathe.

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes