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what is everyone here using to route the rosette channels? I was looking the the rosette cutter on LMI. Saw one on luthiertool.com but was 200 more than lmi's.

HI Frank

I use a Dremel and the stewmac atachment but I was looking at the two cutters you mention as I feel this would be more precise. The LMI one looks fine unless like me you vary your rosettes alot, in which case it could take a lot of set up.

I use a circle cutter that I got at Home Depot or somewhere similar. We did it that way in Frank Finnochio's class and that is pretty much how I've done it since.

I have several cutters for it that have been ground to various different thicknesses to accomodate different purf combinations.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

I use my die grinders and mounted them to the stew mac jig. The higher RPM ( 70,000 ) makes for very clean cuts.
   I tried the dremel and the run out on the shaft oversized the cutter making very sloppy channels. I use a smaller bit than I want so I can make the fit nice and neat.
John Hall

I use the Dremel and stew-mac circle attachment. Works great.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I have a circle cutting jig that I fabricated from aluminum plate that I bolt down to the base of my laminate trimmer.

Here are a couple shots of it bolted to my now DOA Dremel Advantage:





Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

I have used the Stew Mac and dremel, fly cutter(if right term) and LMI set. I really like the LMI setup, but the word setup is the main thing. Once done it is great. Thing is, it is awful to setup and the instructions are pretty worthless. I had to go and talke to others with it to get it figured out. Other thing is you may need to adjust the cutters. The largest cutter for example is to small say for the herringbone rosette from Stew Mac or others so have to set a small one next to it. Small cutters are less than most of the purfel I had. No big deal now cut own purfel or can thin it. I will cont to use it and would recommend it, just know takes time to get setup right. May need to call for instructions. I will and do use the flycutters and have them setup for size of rosettes channels I use. Way learned at Galloup and good system. Only thing LMI allows which makes it faster is can do all the channels at one time.

I use a plexi disc mounted to the base of my laminate timmer, with holes drilled in various distances from the center for different radii. Non adjustable, but very accurate and fast. If I need a radius I don't already have, I just drill another hole in the base. I much prefer to use a laminate trimmer instead of the Dremel whenever it is practical.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

LMI's Greven cutter...worth every penny! 'Course now my kids only are allowed to eat on Thursday!

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Larry,
If you feed them regularly they just get bigger & more difficult to handle

Skip

I use this little deal I made, based on something I saw at Julius Borges' shop. Works great, but it's for a specific rosette. Cheap to make. I think I have less than $20 in this one.



It cuts clean as a whistle...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I used a fly cutter for years, but never liked it. Aside from safety issues (those things bite HARD!) my drill press table is not perpendicular to the quill, and the depths were off.

I never liked Dremels, either, due to the loose bearings.

For a while I just used the 'popsicle stick trick' that C&N show in their book. It works great to cut the circles, but you do have to ground out by hand, with the attendant danger of chipping the top. I supose you could ground out with a Dremel once the cuts are made, to get a clean cut. I always grounded out by hand anyway, so...

These days I have a 'Schneider' cutter (old style) and a Stanley #17 router plane (which they no longer make, drat!). This works OK, although you do have to spend some time figuring out how to set up the cutters right. I'm told there is a bronze copy of the small version of the Stanley available, but I can't say where.

How do you adjust for differnt widths of rings.

Skip..right you are!    Soon they'll be big enough to go out and forage on their own, and then oh boy, the tools I'll buy!    Don, that's SWEET! Looks a little like Charlie Hoffman's, but I decided that with my limited metalsmith skills that I'd splurge on the Greven...expensive, but I do love it!

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[QUOTE=Arnt] I use a plexi disc mounted to the base of my laminate timmer, with holes drilled in various distances from the center for different radii. Non adjustable, but very accurate and fast. If I need a radius I don't already have, I just drill another hole in the base. I much prefer to use a laminate trimmer instead of the Dremel whenever it is practical.[/QUOTE]

Precisely so, and the way I'll be doing it. I did the first two using this method and a full sized router, which was a very smooth cut, but a bit of a pain to actually 'spin' around the pin.

The only thing I like Dremels for is inlay, and even there I'm sure there must be better (air powered?) alternatives out there.

I also have the John Greven rosette cutter from LMI. I would not trade it for anything. But the cat sure gripes about the budget cut in her vittles.

Arnt, do you leave the Plexiglas permanently mounted to the lam trimmer?
I use the same thing but on a full size router as Mattia stated, but I use the router for other things as well and can't keep the disc on it permanently, Haven't drilled locater pins into it so I should do that the next time I make a new plate. Sheesh.

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Rod, I don't keep it on the trimmer always, but the screw holes will align things just fine when I put it on. How do you attach the disc to your router? I wish I had about 15 lam trimmers and routers permanetly set up for different cuts and various jigs, it would speed things up for sure. For now I have to switch bits, bearings and jigs, make test cuts, adjust, more test cuts...you know the drill. It gets old fast, I think I read somewhere that James Olsen has about 80 routers permanetly set up for different tasks!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Yeah, but James isn't hurting for commissions!!!!

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There are also similar and good threads in the archive. I used to use the Dremel/Stewmac combo but was always frustrated with the Dremel. What I use now that someone on this forum posted is a really precise but pricey jig called microfence...I has micrometer accuracy and is easily adaptable to alot of different jigs but is still at the high end pricewise.

Do a search on the archives and you will find the other threads

Shawn, I'm not sure if I'm the one you are thinking of but I use the microfence system. Yes, I had to sell the kids into slavery to afford it but the thing ROCKS! Since I don't do rosettes, I use it for the soundhole and the purfling channel around the soundhole. It has stop rings that make the adjustment idiot proof. Very slick.
On another note: I bought the LMI circle cutter when I first started out and never use it. If someone wants to take it off my hands it will save you a few bucks over new. Just drop me a line. P

Paul, sending the kids out for medical experimentation worked for me! At their ages, selling blood or plasma isn't practical, and a kidney or spleen is a one shot deal for large tool/zoot purchases only!

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Gee Todd, that's slick, I got to try making one of those things right there.

Nice.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Ya, I lay everything out on cad and scale it out than print. I have access to a large formate printer and copier so I even do all my guitars this way.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson