Thursday, June 25th, 2009:

Well, the Zip-Flex blue paua Abalam strips came in the mail today!!!! Yay!!! Now I can work on the rosette.

The Abalam shell is encased on three sides by some sort of flexible backing; that is what allows it to easily bend (as you can see below).

I got the blue paua .064" strip. Here's what the colors look like:

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

I have routed out a 3/64" wide channel for my BWB purfling (wood) here with my Dremel (using the Stew-Mac router base and circle cutting attachment). Here I'm preparing to cut the inner BWB ring to size, using a sharp chisel.

Now I can rout out the outer channel to around 11/64" wide, to fit the BWB / Zip-Flex paua strip / BWB ring. I first routed the channel a tiny bit shy of the full 11/64", then routed it wider a tiny bit at a time, all the while checking the fit with some scrap pieces of the purflings.

 

INDEX:

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  1. Planning
  2. A Little Change in Plans...
  3. Back Braces
  4. Carving the Back Braces & Cutting the Top Braces
  5. The Rosette / Tapering the Fingerboard
  6. Bracing the Top
  7. Carving the Braces / Gluing the Soundhole Braces & Bridge Plate
  8. The Finished Top and Back!!! / Cutting and Bending the Sides
  9. Fixing Cupped Sides / Making Spreaders & Clamping Cauls
  10. Neck and Tail Blocks
  11. Sanding the Radius into the Sides / Gluing the Kerfing Strips / Side Reinforcements
  12. Fitting & Gluing the Back
  13. Fitting & Gluing the Top
  14. We Have a Soundbox Now!!!
  15. Bending and Routing for Bindings
  16. Gluing the End Wedge & Bindings
  17. Scraping the Bindings
  18. Beginning the Neck
  19. The Neck, Continued!!!
  20. The Neck, Day 3
  21. Peghead, Tuners, Dots, & Frets!!
  22. Peghead Inlay
  23. Backstrap & Gluing the Fingerboard
  24. Carving the Neck / A "Duh!" Moment / Side Dots / Preparing for Finish
  25. Pore-Filling and Sealing
  26. Spraying the Top Coats
  27. Finishing the Finish / Gluing on the Neck
  28. Gluing on the Bridge
  29. Set-Up / It's All Done!

 

BELOW: I have test-fitted the rosette rings into their channels.

 

  

Here I have glued in the BWB inner ring with Titebond.

 

 

Both rings have been glued. It's kind of messy now, but that will be cleaned up later, when I scrape and sand the rosette down flush.