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To cut channels for fine lines of purfling, are most people using their laminate trimmers with a collet for 1/8" shaft bits, or are you using a dremel and no collet with the smaller bits?

I'm curious b/c I'm about to cut some fine lines, need to get set up, and could go either way.

TIA,

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

If you are referring to rosettes, I use a collet in a laminate trimmer. I bought it from either StewMac or LMI; don't remember which. I no longer use my Dremel for that type of work.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'd been using my dremel with a shop made circle jig, then switched to the stewmac circle jig. It works good if I'm careful. But I think I'll switch to my little router soon as I make a circle jig for it. It's a lot heavier and more stable and just more pleasant to use than the dremel.

Oh, also an example of why I think heavier is better, on my last build I used the dremel setup. It worked great except I wasn't paying attention to the cord and let it pull the dremel just slightly out of vertical. This shifted the bit and cut the channel too wide in one spot. I was able to fill and you can't really see it, but it wasted some time.

The laminate on the Wells-Karol circle jig works very nice and is rock solid.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Laminate trimmer with a circle cutter here. To much wobble in the dremel

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I've been using my drill press circle cutter. I have a blade that's one thin purfling line thick. I haven't found a router bit that fine.

I bought a Wells/Karol jig and haven't used it yet.

Looks like a neat device though!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Thanks for all the responses. I've got a collet to step down from 1/4 to 1/8", and I've got the cirlcle jig for the router. From the responses, that would seem to be the preferred method. Now I just need to get a couple more of the smaller router bits that are available.

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

I use the Cordless Dremel.....frees me from the cord in a twist problem. Goes smooth for me.

I have a Bishop Cochran base, Bosch colt laminate trimmer and I use .25" shank bits. I have 1/16th inch bits with .25" shafts. I think I got them from amazon.com.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I tossed my home-made circle cutter, used with the dremel plunge router base. ($45 of useless, that base) and bought the Stew Mac circle cutter, but have also bought a laminate trimmer, so may change again in the future. I hang the cord of the dremel, and all my power tools from a hook over my workbench. Well, ever since a rather unfortunate accident... Alsobought 50 end mills on eBay, delivered, from Texas to Australia for $51AU
They range from 1/32" to 1/8". More than I need this week.......

I can never find anything easy to find. I need some small router bits to inlay a flamingo into a headstock.
What's PMT?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Hmmm. I googled PMT router bits and found this:

http://www.pmtnow.com/end_mills/tools/TR-2.asp

No idea which style Todd uses, as there are a bunch of different pages/styles.
cheers

LMI Circle cutter

Ouch on the prices! These guys don't have as big of a selection but much better pricing. http://www.bqtool.com/ The metric can be good sizing for some purfling.

Ya, what he said

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000N4571 ... -1&pi=SL75

Check out this amazon store for other end mills too.

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