Ukulele rosettes the cheating way?

[xray]

Hey guys long time no post from me. i am still alive although the heat from dubbo over summer with no air con had some other ideas about that. I have decided to kick off the year of building with my first uke and after cutting the tiny groove to house the rosette decided to experiment with a new idea. In a previous location at Port Macquarie i used to make fishing lures from timber and poly plastic and i brought some of the gear to dubbo because i thought i may eventually chase some cod. i mixed up a liquid poly mix that hardens in about ten minutes and poured the plastic liquid into the rosette groove to find that it may actually be a feasable option for creating different (cheaper) better fitting rossetes. Has anyone mucked around with this similar approach or am i entering new ground here? paint and die would also be an option to colour the final result however the dye may stain the softer soundboard which is lighter in colour. Anyway share your thoughts i think the idea is neat and for once i thought of something for myself in the world of luthiery. cheers Andy

[DarwinStrings]

Well I can't see why not Andy. I have used tinted epoxy to add colour to inlay before. You can also get dust from semi precious stone and hard epoxy to mix with it from Lapidary suppliers.

Maybe try a little bit of finish on the surrounds to stop it staining from any dye you might use.

Jim

[sebastiaan56]

Hi Andy,

Ive seen several references to this inlay technique over the years. I found a couple like http://www.woodsmith.com/files/issues/1 ... -inlay.pdf and http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au ... hp?t=67700 but not the one was thinking of. I'll see what I can dig out,

[Taffy Evans]

I did something similar on my first couple of guitars back in 1977/80. I used epoxy [Araldite] dyed black and pearl inlays. The photo's are of #1 and #3. And a major rebuild [flood damage] where I took the rosette out and put it in a new top.