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I've cut out a small maple rosette and the plan is to bind it with thin rosewood purfling strips.
I've done a test run or two and I'm not entirely convinced in my process.
Could someone suggest an appropriate method?

The strips are so thin they are liable snap at any moment and cutting them down do side is a bit haphazard. I was thinking of applying contact adhesive and just rolling the rosette along a strip like rolling a wheel down a road? Still doesn't help for the inside. I'd like something high tack as it seem to me that titebond will be a bit slow to stick.

Thanks in advance,
Nick

HHG really is the best for this sort of thing. You can coat both sides of the purfling which helps to prevent the strips from breaking (makes them more flexible) and it sizes the outside edge as well. Map pins do the rest. Alternately pre bend the strips on a bending iron and glue.

Gee, other than the sound hole, me never ever seen saw a non solid wood rosette,...well ok, ya there are the fake photo print rosettes and ones with all sorts of other material inlays, but yup, they was all pretty solid looking to me.

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Exactly how I do it. Works perfect every time.

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Rob Flindall
Flindall Guitars
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I'll jump on this bandwagon only to recommend you try it - works great!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks for all the replies!

Maybe I'm showing my design naivety here but there are really thin strips, only very fine 0.5mm outlines around the rosette, matching the 0.5mm purfling outline on the inside of the binding (which will be glued to the binding and installed "as one").

They're to prevent bleed when I dye the top as much as they are for design, though of course I'm hoping they'll offer a subtle but definite distinction between the *purple* top (it's for a little girl!) and contrasting maple decoration.

To be honest, I probably should have bought 1mm rather than 0.5 but I think they'll still do their job. Just makes it difficult to rout a channel for them afterwards, otherwise I certainly would do as recommended by Todd and others.

As it is, I think Michael's suggestion is going to work best. The map pins trick was lurking somewhere in the depths of my memory! One more thing I won't have to ask again!

I don't have any HHG though, something I was saving for my next guitar... Will CA do? The rosette is only 1mm thick as I didn't like the idea of it being more than half the thickness of the top, so it's all a bit fiddly.

And, Padma, I knew it didn't sound quite right when I typed it but didn't take the time to think of better terminology!

CA would work, but I can't see any advantage in it over titebond or any plain ol' glue for this job, and has the disadvantage of wicking all over the place and sticking to things you don't want it to.

So, I'd use the titebond. Cut a thin strip of masking tape and wrap it around the outside to clamp there. Pins will indeed work for the inside. And if the purfling strip is cut to perfect length, it should sort of self-clamp as long as you keep the ends butted together rather than overlapping.

Oh, and for the binding/purfling of the soundboard, I'd recommend against gluing them together, unless you've done that before without issue... for me, it's much easier to bend separately, and not much more difficult to glue simultaneously while installing. Do make the purfling full height, so you don't have to cut a separate channel.

Thanks, Dennis, I'll have a go at that in the morning. The butt joints are going to be tricky, I'd rather not have to cover them with the fretboard. Maybe inevitable?
And you're right, no real need to glue the purfling to the binding, I'll do as you suggest!

And thanks, Todd. I'll definitely use that advice in the future but my smallest bit is 1/32 and cutting the rosette was difficult enough with my rubbish circle cutter. I tried using my Stewmac jig for the first time and found it's no good for such small diameters, so I resorted to the dremel one, and it was a nightmare! It cut a spiral! Anyway, in the end I used the popsicle stick method, and I'm likely to do the same when installing, at least for establishing the outline.

Cheers

Ah Nick our British friend...

As Milarepa once said...

"Do not think, do not act, do not meditate...leave your mind in its natural state."


Just look what this ancient Tibetan practice did for me.


blessings
?adma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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That's exactly what I'm worried about, mate!
My mind in its natural state is a highly chaotic, kaleidoscope-like place! Thinking is the only way to curb its erratic tendencies.

I was once asked by a Tibetan monk how I keep so calm, so that shows how much they know!

Thanks, gusy, for the useful info in this thread.

For any Americans slightly puzzled: "map pins" is British for what we Americans call "push pins."

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

There was a time when you could buy much nicer all metal versions of the map pin. Perhaps you still can.
Sloane used these pins and built his entire rosette using them. I still use the technique for some rosettes. Some can have well over 30 lines. The advantage that HHG has is that it is easy to reconstitute the glue if the rosette doesn't turn out perfectly even. It rarely does. The disadvantage of using the pins is that the outer line can take the imprint of the metal pin. Either use a sacrificial waxed line or remove the indentations with hot water.

Another technique for rosettes:

When you cut the channels for your rosette in the top, also cut an identical channel in a piece of polyethylene (white cutting board material) before you change the radius of the cutter for your next cut. Keep repeating the cut in the poly each time you make a cut in the top.

This leaves you a perfectly identical channel in the poly to construct your rosette. You can play around to your heart's content getting the fit just right, while avoiding dinging up your top. Glue it all up in the poly and once dry, sand down the surface while still in the poly, and then pop it out. It will be an exact fit for the channel you cut in the top, and you just have one stable piece to have to mess with.

I always use thin CA for this as there are no swelling issues to have to deal with. If you happen to get carried away with the CA and the exothermic reaction goes into the "China Syndrome" of getting hot enough to boil leaving a white area, it hasn't happened glued into the top, so you can just pop it out and redue it in the poly.

You also don't have to mess with pins, "wobbles " from uneven pressure from the pinning up, waiting for glue to dry, etc.

Just fit it all dry, glue with thin CA, and pop it out of the polyethylene mold.

Where this really shines is with wider, complex multi-piece rosettes. You can arrange everything dry, and when perfect, drip CA on it. No racing the open time of the glue.

Just a quick note to seal the top with something if using CA... it will wick in and stain spruce a nasty looking yellow.