The Top: The Rosette

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012:

Last night, I thickness-sanded the top, back, and sides. The top, I left thick, only sanding enough to smooth out the surfaces; I will thickness-sand it to its final thickness later, after I've inlaid the rosette. The back and sides were both thicknessed to .095" (about 3/32").

After I did that, I set the mold over the top and back, to draw their shapes, and drew another line about 1/4" outside the outlines. (That is what I have trimmed the pieces to.) I marked out the back bracing positions and the centerpoint for the soundhole.

This morning, I bandsawed these pieces out. I left the sides at least 1/2" longer, for some leeway for trimming the ends later.

(The lower right piece will be the back, because of its nice striping along the centerline.)

 

 

Tuesday, around 3:15 p.m.:

I spent about three hours working on the rosette inlay. I first used the Dremel and Stew-Mac circle cutter to rout out the two channels for the single black/white/black ring and for the Zipflex paua abalone strip flanked on both sides by a thin black/white/black strip. Here are the channels:

I then cut the strips to fit the rings and glued them in with Weld-on glue. I'm going to give the glue plenty of time to set, and will thickness-sand the top down tomorrow to its final thickness.

   

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012:

Just a couple of photos today --- wasn't able to get to the guitar until the afternoon (had a dentist appointment and grocery shopping to do). All I was able to do was to sand down the rosette and final-thickness (to about 0.11") the top. After I did that, I drew the bracing plan on the inside of the top. I also got a little start on cutting the brace stock; I'll finish that tomorrow, probably, and perhaps begin gluing braces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the rosette, with the top dampened a little bit so you can see how it might look under finish:

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

INDEX:

Return to HOME PAGE

  1. Finishing the Mold
  2. Top and Back Plates, Fingerboard and BridgeWood
  3. The Top: The Rosette
  4. Bracing: Days 1 & 2
  5. Bracing: Days 3 & 4
  6. Sides
  7. The Peghead
  8. Kerfing
  9. Side Braces, Fingerboard
  10. Completing the Box
  11. Preparing for Binding
  12. It's Binding Time!!!
  13. Continuing the Binding
  14. Making the Bridge
  15. Nut Slot, Endpin Jack Hole, Brushes & Z-poxy
  16. On to the Finish!!!
  17. Rubbing Out, Polishing, and Fingerboard
  18. Bridge, Pickup, and Set-up!!!
  19. It's Finished!!!