So I routed a test rosette tonight out of walnut. I like it. Turned out well. I feel pretty confident routing into the pie pieces I took 3 days assembling. That's them below. Took forever to glue up.
Then, the piece of white oak in this shot is going to be the head plate. It's got lots of figure and the sap wood to match the back.
Also, I went to the scrap yard today. They have bins and bins full of electric motors. Most were 1/2 to 3/4 HP, so not quite as powerful as I wanted. But perhaps if I dig more next time, I'll find something better. It's also a crap shoot whether the thing will even fire up once it's wired and ready to go. But, they're cheep and they said I could bring it back if it doesn't work and exchange it for another one. I paid 12 dollars for a 1/2 horse dryer motor with mounting hardware. Now I just have to figure out the electronics, wire up the power and on/off switch, and it'll be good to go. After that will be assembling the impeller, housing and
cyclone separator.