Yet! another rosette channel hole cutter

Many Years ago, long before I even thought of making a ukulele I designed and made some simple "Boring heads" for model engineers to use on their hobby milling machines. Slideshows of manufacture can be seen here Part 1 http://s219.photobucket.com/user/shiregreenbod/media/ea319039.pbw.html and here for Part 2 http://s219.photobucket.com/user/shiregreenbod/media/1f8d5156.pbw.html
And here's Part 3 http://s219.photobucket.com/user/shiregreenbod/media/4620d098.pbw.html
I recently remembered that I still had a couple left over..and I realised that they could be converted into adjustable rosette cutters..so today I had a go at one..dead easy to use just, pick a hole for the cutter near to the diameter required and turn adjuster dial to size..accurate to within .001" .. I tested it out on some cheap plywood scraps and it worked great...For me this is the best one yet...I wish I'd thought of it before...next i'll try it out on the new Concerts.
The Boring Head.

The cutter bar.

Fitted in boring head.

In Action.

Nice idea for fine adjustment.
I'm surprised to see you're using plywood for tops now

ksquine said:

I'm surprised to see you're using plywood for tops now

Click to expand...

Yes, it is sad isn't it. How quickly we go to cheaper materials once we hit the big-time. Still, it looks like quality ply.... But seriously, that looks like a great solution. Couple of potential problems I see: that cutting edge needs to be sharp as humanly possible to prevent tear-out and the drill press chuck needs to be absolutely plumb and straight with no wobble.

Nice work on the boring head Ken.

On the contrary Ken, not boring at all! ��

You know what I am going to say Ken.... BTW jointed up and packaged - your 19th Century Cuban mahogany...

BTW - I use tank cutters/fly cutters exclusively on a wobbly drill press no problem. I can grind cutters with proper tolerance and get a great fit for pearl and marquetry. Rarely do I get tear-out because I keep the cutters honed with razor sharp edges. Would never go back to using a router!