Over the past few days the border elements were installed to complete the work on the rosette. They were done in three installments working away from the central motif starting with the three inner maple/rosewood/rosewood veneer bands, the border motif and finishing the rosette off with two more outer veneer bands, both rosewood. This work did present itself with several challenges that I did not foresee.
The tiles for the central motif were purposely made bigger (taller) and had flat tops and bottoms. As I routed the first narrow channels to accommodate the inner veneer bands, the top and bottom of the central motif were trimmed to perfect circular curve in the same go. The bit used for this was a 1/32" solid carbide spiral downcut bit. The downcut bit really does cut down, packing the channel with sawdust to the extend that I had to route it three times while vacuuming, the clear it. I tried to start somewhere in the middle and then work my way out on both sides of the channel until the desired width was achieved. It was quite challenging to find the right width, and I had to use a loupe to my aid. I wanted a snug fit, however not so snug, it was impossible to fit the veneer strips swelled by the wet glue, but not so wide it would leave any gaps. and I struggled with estimating how much swelling to allow for.
Once a dry fit proved wide enough to allow for a little play, the veneer bands were wetted with glue and glue was applied to the channel with a syringe. I lightly pressed the strips against each other and inserted the sandwich into the channel, press fitting them as deep as I could. It soon became apparent that I had routed both channels on the wide side. Particularly the inside one and I ended up having to improvise and quickly get some pin needles to hold the veneer bands butted up against central motif. I left the whole thing to dry for about 30 minutes and then started trimming the protruding veneer, first with a chisel and then with a block plane, until flush with the soundboard.
The wide channels had a ripple effect when it came to do route the channel for the border motif, as routing glue proved to be a very messy affair. I kept melting and quickly gunged up the bit. Cleaning up such a tiny bit was a very delicate and time consuming affair. After the first clean up I added some DriCote lubricant. which help a little on the consecutive cleanings and eventually I got it them both done and this time with a better fit. The inserted border motifs were clamped lightly for half an hour and then cut flush, as described above.
The out veneer bands were completed in a similarly manner to the inner veneers. One band segment went in smoothly with a nice tight fit, however the other one ended up too narrow. I guess I overcompensated. Once the glue was inserted into the channel and on the veneer strips, everything had swelled and it was impossible to get the bands to fit. I quickly had to clean up as much of the glue as possible, wait until the remaining glue had dried and start over again. Routing the channel the second time was not fun at all; Lots of bit cleaning.
The tiles for the central motif were purposely made bigger (taller) and had flat tops and bottoms. As I routed the first narrow channels to accommodate the inner veneer bands, the top and bottom of the central motif were trimmed to perfect circular curve in the same go. The bit used for this was a 1/32" solid carbide spiral downcut bit. The downcut bit really does cut down, packing the channel with sawdust to the extend that I had to route it three times while vacuuming, the clear it. I tried to start somewhere in the middle and then work my way out on both sides of the channel until the desired width was achieved. It was quite challenging to find the right width, and I had to use a loupe to my aid. I wanted a snug fit, however not so snug, it was impossible to fit the veneer strips swelled by the wet glue, but not so wide it would leave any gaps. and I struggled with estimating how much swelling to allow for.
Once a dry fit proved wide enough to allow for a little play, the veneer bands were wetted with glue and glue was applied to the channel with a syringe. I lightly pressed the strips against each other and inserted the sandwich into the channel, press fitting them as deep as I could. It soon became apparent that I had routed both channels on the wide side. Particularly the inside one and I ended up having to improvise and quickly get some pin needles to hold the veneer bands butted up against central motif. I left the whole thing to dry for about 30 minutes and then started trimming the protruding veneer, first with a chisel and then with a block plane, until flush with the soundboard.
The wide channels had a ripple effect when it came to do route the channel for the border motif, as routing glue proved to be a very messy affair. I kept melting and quickly gunged up the bit. Cleaning up such a tiny bit was a very delicate and time consuming affair. After the first clean up I added some DriCote lubricant. which help a little on the consecutive cleanings and eventually I got it them both done and this time with a better fit. The inserted border motifs were clamped lightly for half an hour and then cut flush, as described above.
The out veneer bands were completed in a similarly manner to the inner veneers. One band segment went in smoothly with a nice tight fit, however the other one ended up too narrow. I guess I overcompensated. Once the glue was inserted into the channel and on the veneer strips, everything had swelled and it was impossible to get the bands to fit. I quickly had to clean up as much of the glue as possible, wait until the remaining glue had dried and start over again. Routing the channel the second time was not fun at all; Lots of bit cleaning.
ROUTING BORDER MOTIF CHANNEL
DRY FITTING BORDER MOTIF
GLUED BORDER MOTIF
CARVING BORDER MOTIF
FINISHED BORDER MOTIF
ROUTING OUTER VENEER BAND CHANNEL
DRY FITTING OUTER VENEER BANDS
APPLYING GLUE
FLUSH PLANING OUTER VENEER BANDS
THE FINISHED ROSETTE
ROSETTE CLOSE-UP
DRY FITTING BORDER MOTIF
GLUED BORDER MOTIF
CARVING BORDER MOTIF
FINISHED BORDER MOTIF
ROUTING OUTER VENEER BAND CHANNEL
DRY FITTING OUTER VENEER BANDS
APPLYING GLUE
FLUSH PLANING OUTER VENEER BANDS
THE FINISHED ROSETTE
ROSETTE CLOSE-UP
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