How I make a rosette for my Classical guitars

Making and Installing
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John Parchem
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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.



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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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Looks like it will be a perfect fit

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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.

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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.

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All cleaned up

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ken cierp
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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
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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
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Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:33 pm
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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
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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
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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.

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