How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Making and Installing
Post Reply
John Parchem
Posts: 2746
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:33 pm
Location: Seattle
Contact:

How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Post by John Parchem » Sun May 03, 2015 11:05 pm

I needed to make a classical guitar rosette. I like to have them hint at being traditional but still be based on wood. I got a new stack of rosette blanks off the OLF classified and found one that looked like it would make a nice rosette. Also I have this whole stack of EIR\Black fiber strips I got at a Seattle Luthier Group auction I believe from Gurian Instruments and thought this rosette was a nice opportunity to use them.



Image

Instead of routing out the whole channel, I decided to make it on the sound board one section at a time. That way I can create tight channels for the rope binding and the EIR\B strips

Image

I tried to put in the stack without prebending. I was using a heat gun as I worked put I got so far and the roap binding started to come apart.

Image

Ultimately I pulled out my bending pipe, bent everything close to the correct shape and found it easy to inlay the stack. I sealed the channel with shellac and I pushed the stack in place and flooded it with thin CA.

Image

Before moving on to the next channel, the router base is set up perfectly to cut the outside of the wood rosette. I only take it to the depth that matches the thickness of the rosette I want. So without changing anything I cut to the outside line of the wood rosette. No measuring just negative space.

Image

After first trying to cat the second ring I noticed that I needed to scraped the ring level so that the router will cut the next channel at the correct depth.

Image

My stack is just a touch wider than my bit so I take a few passes and sneak up on the correct width. I make sure that any needed passes are going into the wood rosette area so that the router base is set to cut the inside of the wood rosette. Later when I run the back of the rosette blank though the drum sander a perfect sized ring should drop out.

Image

Image

Image

I pushed in the second purfling stack and ran the rosette blank through the drum sander until my ring dropped out.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Looks like it will be a perfect fit

Image

I routed the inside of the rosette channel sneaking up on the black fiber. This is where the Bishop Cochran base shines. I have gotten where I can move the bit in .01 mm increments.

Image

The ring snapped right in place. Not wanting to break it by pulling it out, and having previously sealed the inside of the channel with shellac, I flooded the rosette with thin CA.

Image

All cleaned up

Image

ken cierp
Posts: 3924
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:23 pm

Re: How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Post by ken cierp » Mon May 04, 2015 8:28 am

Thank you for the great tutor -- Outstanding!

Kevin in California
Posts: 2795
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:19 pm

Re: How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Post by Kevin in California » Mon May 04, 2015 9:44 am

Beautiful John. I love wood rosettes!
What will the guitar be?

John Parchem
Posts: 2746
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:33 pm
Location: Seattle
Contact:

Re: How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Post by John Parchem » Mon May 04, 2015 9:52 am

Thanks Ken!
Kevin in California wrote:Beautiful John. I love wood rosettes!
What will the guitar be?
Thanks, I am making a classical guitar just like my last on a commission from my classical guitar instructor.

dave d
Posts: 451
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:05 pm
Location: Toronto-ish

Re: How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Post by dave d » Mon May 04, 2015 10:45 am

That's awesome John - thanks for the very nice instructions. I love the explanations and matching photos. A question about the sanding of the rosette blank: Something that I've never done before is put small thin pieces of wood through a thickness sander. Is there any danger of the rosette ring being so small that it flies out of there when it detaches from the blank?

John Parchem
Posts: 2746
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:33 pm
Location: Seattle
Contact:

Re: How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Post by John Parchem » Mon May 04, 2015 12:38 pm

The rosettes are a bit over 1.5mm thick, I have never had thin bits fly out as they are sitting on a 100 grit belt. For small pieces I sometimes use a flat piece of plywood that has sand paper glued on as a sled to run the pieces through. The biggest issue I have is the length, not the thickness. I always like pieces that are always visible on one side of the drum or the other. In the above pictures, once I get to where I can see through the routes I stop lowering the drum and just run the pieces through. That way the last few sanding passes are very light. When the is about 2/3 detached I stop sanding and very carefully separate the rest. Because of my procedure the ring is a matching depth to the channel so I do not want to sand it too much.

Post Reply