Official Luthiers Forum!

If you're like me (always looking to overcome the high cost of specialized lutherie tools), here's something you'll want to try. While strolling the aisles of the local HD a while back, I came upon a package of RotoZip bits. 1/8" spiral , less than $5.00 for a pack of 6. Bought a pack, took them home and made a couple of modifications (had to cut them off a little and grind a concave cutting edge on the flat bottom).

I'm now using them to cut all my wood rosettes and rout the cavities for the rosettes. Virtually no tearout on either spruce or hardwoods. They work much better than the $20.00 bits I use to buy from lutherie suppliers. I've done four guitars with the first one and it's still sharp. When it gets dull, I'll just toss it and reach for another. At less than $1.00 a piece, it's hard to go wrong.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Cool, how did you gring the bottom?

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John, I used the grinding wheel on my Dremel and just made an X in the bottom to provide some type of cutter on the bottom. It keeps the bit from burning the bottom of the channel. Not absolutely necessary, but helpful.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Thanks, Jimmy, I'll give it a shot.

I've been using thes a couple years too. Works great! Just like Jimmy said, cut off a little(as little as you can get by with, more later...)and try to match the existing profile on the bottom. I used a cutoff wheel to grind mine.

If it gets dull, cut off the cutter end and repeat! You can do this a coupla times and get away with it.

Good stuff CHEAP. (I can afford that!) And no trade off of quality as far as I can tell.