So here is my segmented rosette. As I said yesterday, a number of things went wrong while working on it. That theme continued today and so I'm going to have to rebuild it. Not to worry though, I actually figured out a way to do it faster than before.
And for your edification, as well as my own record keeping, here are the mishaps, in no particular order.
- Insufficient glue in between the light & dark pieces. OR, gluing end grain to end grain. I'm actually not sure which. 3 separate joints failed during various operations that stressed the segmented piece.
- While performing the initial circle cutting rout on the segmented piece, the method I used to fix the piece in place did not allow the trim router to move smoothly. Thus my first cut was irregular. I had to alter the diameter of the thing at that point, which would not really have ultimately been that big a problem, but still.
- Was going to have both the inner and outer bands in white oak, but began a rout on the outer band with the circle cutter measured incorrectly, thus killing that piece. Opted for the walnut at that point. This actually gave an interesting look that was not altogether unpleasant, but still.
- While gluing it up, I used a role of masking tape as the center. This ended up being the thing that resulted in this rosette being unusable. The role deformed slightly under the pressure from the hose clamp I was using and the rosette is now slightly out of round. I could perhaps still use it if I cut the rosette channel manually with a sharp chisel, but, no. I don't think so.
- Part of the outer walnut band actually has small bits of a plastic bag embedded where the glue joint to the segmented center is. In my haste to get the thing glued, it must have been in the wrong place.
Lessons learned. Don't glue end grain and make sure the joint is not starved. Use a better means of fixing the segmented piece in place before routing them. Use something a bit more rigid when gluing the rosette up, like a piece of wood cut to the right diameter and protected with packing tape to prevent unwanted adhesion. And, take more care while gluing the thing together.
So. I'm not completely certain I know exactly how I'm going to proceed on the rosette front. I actually don't think I like the black/white/black border on this piece. So perhaps I'll just do another segmented rosette with the inner and outer bands and no striping. I also realized there was an easier way to do the individual pieces for the segmented piece. I'll use the circle cutting jig to cut 2 circles out of walnut and white oak, then I'll cut the individual pieces out of those 2 complete circles. Will be easier and faster than what I tried last time.
*sigh* Ah well.
