Tuesday, April 17, 2007

PREPARING ROSETTE ELEMENTS

PART 2 - CENTRAL MOTIF ELEMENTS.

There was quite a bit of progress on the rosette over the weekend. I got all the tile segments done. In order to accommodate the taper in the vertical segment I made the upper walnut/maple/walnut sandwich 0.5mm, a fat 1/64", thicker than the bottom one.

After all the veneer sandwiches were glued, it was time to shoot the miters joints. I made a miter jig especially for this task. Basically it is similar to the taper jig, however the insert is different. I consist of a miter 'table' or ramp and a sliding fence. The ramp is attached with bolts and can be exchanged with ramps of other angles if needed. The ramp is about 43.5° on one side and 46.5° on the other. This allows for a joint that is 93°on the lower/narrow part vertical segment and 87° on the upper/wider part. This is to compensate for the tiles taper. The idea is to give the appearance that the horizontal parts are straight and not bend upwards as they would had the angles been 90°. I used double sided tape to hold the work in place.

MITER JIG


I had to keep the tongue straight in my mouth (Danish expression for being very careful) to keep track of what part had to be mitered at what angle, but I got through it without mishaps. The old saying "measure twice, cut once" came in very handy. The vertical segment were cut to final width, whereas I left the horizontal ones long for later adjustments when the tile segments is glued together.


I also made the triangular rosewood segments that goes on top and bottom of the tile. Basically, I planed a 8mm square piece from some scrap leftover from the bridge/fingerboard billet and ran it though my bandsaw at 30° angle.

Last I cut the Rosewood veneer strips that goes in the center of the tile. I used a Stanley knife and a metal ruler for this. I did it with many light passes, probably 10-15, in order to keep the knife from splitting the veneer and not to get caught in the grain. Then I put the strip in my taper jig and held it in place with a 2mm thick piece of maple. Like the walnut/holly/walnut segments I had to cut the vertical veneer strip to final dimension. I did that with my block plane. I started of with the jack plane but it was too big and heavy to control.

I'll be the first to admit it. I'M GEEKING OUT HERE BIG TIME. But, it was such fun to see how far I could push it. With the segments that I finished to final dimension I ended up with an error of +/- 0.02 or 0.03mm around 0.001".

SHOOTING MITERS


FINISHED VERTICAL SEGMENTS

CUTTING VENEER

TRUING VENEER


FINISHED SEGMENTS


FINISHED SEGMENTS

1 comment:

Mr. Macro said...

Wow, if only I possessed a tenth of your focus, drive and determination not to mention your ability to wield tools like a professional...

-pass me that remote control woman!!!