Stewmac Rosette soundhole cutter jig

[ozziebluesman]

Sorry if this has been done before but I can't find much help on the net for modifying my old 3 inch, 6 inch rosette cutter so I can cut a 2 inch ukulele sound hole. As you see in the pic I have a piece of nice wood to make some guitar and ukulele rosette tiles out of. The old jig will do all channels but the channel I need to cut for the ukulele inner 55 mm rosette channel is not possible. I really only need it to be able to cut the 55 mm rosette measurement as I use Michaels brass manual cutter with great success. If there is a thread on here or someone knows where some good mod pics are available I would be most grateful. Cheers Alan

[graham mcdonald]

A couple of ideas. Drill two more countersunk holes in the base plate further up towards the slidy bit and enlarge the wedge shape cutout so the Dremel holder part is closer to the slidy bit. Or if you just want something to cut the sound hole, get a piece of 3mm perspex, drill two countersunk to mount the dremel holder and another 3/16” hole far enough away so the right size hole is cut. I made one up with four holes for different sized uke soundholes. I am away from home over the weekend so I don’t have access to the photos, but I can post them on Monday if you want. I use cheap Chines downcut bits and worked the hole positions out for a 1.5mm bit.

Cheers

[Allen]

I did Grahams first suggestion to mine.

[ozziebluesman]

Thank you Graham and Allen for your suggestions.
I see Stew Mac have a new router dremel setup that will do what I want but I will do as you suggested.
Graham a pictures are always great so when your home I would like to see what you have designed.
Thank you
Alan

[blackalex1952]

Trevor Gore...Where do you get the precision aftermarket collets and bits? Ross

[Trevor Gore]

Trevor Gore...Where do you get the precision aftermarket collets and bits? Ross

Precise Bits

[graham mcdonald]

Here are a couple of pics of the modified StewMac base.Should be self-explanatory.

And one of the very simple piece of perspex with four holes (of which only two are visible) to cut four sizes of uke soundhole. The other two holes are behind the Dremel base. Otherwise they would be too close together.

To have a really versatile jig, something like this one Beau Hannam had a friend with a CNC make would be the dogs dangly bits. I want one!

Cheers

[lauburu]

I've been absent for the last 12 months or so - renovating house, sell house, renovate shack, rent shack, try to retire but clients keep calling, move to beach, buy house.............and now about to build a proper workshop. Will advise of progress.

Anyway, one of my clients owed me a favour so I asked him to do a circle cutter for a Stewmac gizmo as shown above. This is what he came up with. Feel free to make a perspex version. I have it in dxf format but that file format is not supported so PM me if you want a copy.

Spiral Circle Cutter.pdf

(4.39 KiB) Downloaded 1407 times

[lauburu]

Mmmm. The PDF file only shows a segment of the template. Will try to rectify

[lauburu]

OK. This pdf shows what the base will look like. It's on an A3 sheet so I've got no way of knowing if it's to scale or not. However, the dxf file will be completely accurate. Happy to email dxf if you PM me.

Spiral Circle Cutter2.pdf

(8.58 KiB) Downloaded 687 times

Miguel

[kiwigeo]

Hold your horses lads....it looks like Stewmac have just released their official version of the "dogs dangly bits:: http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Ty ... _Base.html

[lauburu]

Note to self: 1. Win Lotto 2. Buy dog's dangly bits

Miguel

[simso]

You have to give them credit.

If they see a good idea, they will run with it and mass produce it.

Steve

[blackalex1952]

This one too if you need one? One use that comes to mind would be for a back slanted saddle pocket. In fact on further inspection of the link that is exactly what they demonstrate on the "learn" tab on the page. http://www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?sear ... ter%20base
Ross

[ozziebluesman]

Thanks everyone for your input.
Thanks for the pics Graham I eneded up doing the same modification and the jig will now cut all Ukulele soundholes and rosette channel sizes as well as the guitar work it was originally designed for.
Cheers
Alan

[Mark McLean]

This one too if you need one? One use that comes to mind would be for a back slanted saddle pocket. In fact on further inspection of the link that is exactly what they demonstrate on the "learn" tab on the page. http://www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?sear ... ter%20base
Ross

$75 for a thing that will allow you to cut a slanted saddle slot?
I remember Bob Connor recommending that you put a paddle-pop stick under one edge of your router base to make a slot that is slanted about 5 degrees off vertical. That always struck me as one of the all time great cheap tricks to achieve a clever result.

[kiwigeo]

I remember Bob Connor recommending that you put a paddle-pop stick under one edge of your router base to make a slot that is slanted about 5 degrees off vertical. That always struck me as one of the all time great cheap tricks to achieve a clever result.

Careful Mark, Stewmac monitors this forum. Expect to see a $75 paddle pop with a Stewmac logo on it appearing in their catalogue next week.