tonyturley
Legend
- Location
- Scott Depot, WV, USA
- Name
- Tony
I thought I'd share how I arrived at today's Challenge image, a segmented rosette for a small guitar. First I take a block of scrap wood, and use 3M spray adhesive to bond a piece of paper to it. I find the center, then draw two circles for the inner and outer perimeters of the ring. Then I start gluing wedges of various hardwoods around the circle with Titebond wood glue. Shape doesn't matter, as long as the edges match tightly and the circle is covered. Purfling strips made up of black fiber mated between thin Maple strips are used as separators. The only hardwood piece that has to be an exact fit is the last piece of the circle.
I let the glue cure overnight, then I lightly feed the block of wood through my drum sander from different directions to get an even thickness. Then I use a small rotary tool to cut the inner and outer diameters. After that, I gently pry the ring from the block with a putty knife and glue it to a 1/64" (0.4mm) plywood backing. After trimming the ply to the circumference, I glue it back down to another paper-covered block to glue on the outer and inner purling rings. The outer ring will bend OK if I go slowly and glue it a bit at a time, pinning it tightly at each step. The inner circumference is too tight, and the purfling will crack if I force it, so it has to be heat bent before attempting that step.
At that point, I just let the glue set again overnight, then pull all the pins and carefully sand the purfling rings flush with the wood segments. Pry the rosette from the wood block, gently sand the back to remove the paper, and glue the rosette in the channel cut in the guitar top, using a generous amount of Titebond and a lot of clamping weight to ensure a good bond. At this point, the rosette is still a fair bit thicker than the guitar top, and I'm about to go sand it flush with the soundboard.
I let the glue cure overnight, then I lightly feed the block of wood through my drum sander from different directions to get an even thickness. Then I use a small rotary tool to cut the inner and outer diameters. After that, I gently pry the ring from the block with a putty knife and glue it to a 1/64" (0.4mm) plywood backing. After trimming the ply to the circumference, I glue it back down to another paper-covered block to glue on the outer and inner purling rings. The outer ring will bend OK if I go slowly and glue it a bit at a time, pinning it tightly at each step. The inner circumference is too tight, and the purfling will crack if I force it, so it has to be heat bent before attempting that step.
At that point, I just let the glue set again overnight, then pull all the pins and carefully sand the purfling rings flush with the wood segments. Pry the rosette from the wood block, gently sand the back to remove the paper, and glue the rosette in the channel cut in the guitar top, using a generous amount of Titebond and a lot of clamping weight to ensure a good bond. At this point, the rosette is still a fair bit thicker than the guitar top, and I'm about to go sand it flush with the soundboard.
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