Updates for this week:
1: back thickness sanded to .095"
2: back braces sanded to a 20' radius on a radius dish.
3: back strip reinforcement glued in place on the inside face of the back
4: back ladder bracing positions marked and back strip notched with a freshly sharpened 1/4" chisel.
5: radial rosewood rosette glued together and trimmed to rough shape with an imperfect tool: Dremel's own circle cutting jig that is part of their plunge router base.
6: the Carpathian spruce top has been further sanded down to .011" thick at the centerline, just below .09 at the edges. I dare not go thinner; as it stands I will have to leave the braces tall and minimally scalloped. For reference I measured the thickness of the top on my Larrivee OM-03R which is my go to guitar and its top is only a few thousandths of an inch thicker. I have no experience with or means to measure deflection but this is build #2 so luck plays a big part between success and failure. In fact, I don't even want to know. Moving right along...
7: I'd routed for a StewMac herringbone rosette with two double BWB satellite purfling rings. I routed away to accommodate the rosewood ring and am satisfied that there was no tearaway like I had to deal with last time. The circle cutter I'm using isn't the best so I'm proceeding carefully. Still, I can't accurately rout the inner boundaries so I've been using Natelson and Cumpiano's bare bones method with a Popsicle stick and an Exacto blade. It does the trick on the spruce but I have been eyeballing the inner circumference on the rosewood, again proceeding carefully.
