Hi Mom! Glad to see you made it to UU. Check your e-mail. I got the koa for yours and Tad's at Volcano Guitar Works.
************DISCLAIMER***********
I'm pretty new at this, been building a year and a half. I've read a couple of books, followed a couple sets of plans and picked up a ton of hints, tips and tricks along the way at this, and other forums, but a lot of how I do it I had to make up as I go along. I've kind of slid into a way of doing this that is working for me today, more or less, but it may not be the way I do it tomorrow. I share this stuff with the world mainly so the pros here can get a little chuckle out of it, and maybe gather some insight in the way of feed back. If any task I describe or pic I show helps someone even newer than me, or inspires someone to try to build their own, that's great. I've spent most of my adult life earning a living by making wood look pretty, but when it comes to instruments I'm trying to work my way up to amateur. So please don't anybody go off and do something just because you saw it here, because my way may not be THE way. Thank you, rant over.
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Perry, this set bent like butter. I've only had a problem with the curlies popping once, and luckily stopped before it was too late. I used to have trouble with faceting while hand bending and problems with springback in the fox style bender. These days I bend the waist, and slightly precurve the bouts on the iron with just a spritz, then stick 'em on the form for 2 heat cycles. I've done the last 6 or so this way and it has been working very well for me.
Guess I better install the rosette before bracing up the plates. This is how it went. Started with the StewMac circle thing on the Dremel and a 1/16" carbide downcutter to route for the soundhole binding. I left the top thick and went most of the way through for the channel. Sprayed a coat of shellac on the area, bent an .062" piece of curly koa and CA'd it in. Sanded smooth and hit it again with a little shellac.
For the segmented rosette I used my homemade segmented rosette cutting for tenor jig. Since the purfling for the rosette is .030", I used a 1/32" bit to route out the segments. The depth here was only about half way through the top. Once the segments were done I shaped little pieces of koa on the spindle sander so the figure presents in a radial fashion. A little shellac so the CA doesn't soak in the end grain, and glued the pieces in. Went back around all the perimeters with the 1/32" bit to create a channel for the purfling. The BWB purfling goes in just like it looks, lots of little pieces, each mitered and cut to fit with a sharp chisel. I hold the purfling with my left hand, align the chisel with my right and push with my chin to cut.
Used the thickness sander to smooth everything out on top and then flipped it over and thicknessed from the back, freeing the soundhole binding in the process. One more time around with the circle cutter and soundhole and rosette are done.
Here's pics of the rosette jig in action, the empty segments after routing, my view of the purfling install, the completed rosette and what's left after.
Thanks for looking, Steve