Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Not sure if anyone is interested, but i thought i'd post this anyway. I've had the stewmac rosette cutter for a while, but never really use it, i tend to use a fly cutter, which is ok for rosettes with a bit of messing around, but it's no good for me to cut out sound holes because my drill press is too small, so did some mods on the stewmac jig and used it today to cut a rosette, worked good but i'm using 3/16" tool steel for a cutter which also worked ok but i need to sharpen it properly. Someone else might be able to make it a bit better. Wayne

Very creative Wayne, what a bloody good idea.

That is a good idea.
I modified mine to fit a Makita Laminate Trimmer but prefer your quieter approach.

Thanks guys, could use a little tweeking yet. I installed the rosette today, all good. Wayne

Looks good, but I probably will still not buy the Stewmac jig.

Which kind of tool bit did you use, and did you have to alter the shape of the cutting tip, respectively ground one on the opposite end of the bit. I imagine he tip shape might be critical (or maybe it is not...)

I just used 3/16" tool steel and ground it to a thin cross section trying to keep it the same width with the tip doing the cutting. I already had this stewmac jig and wanted to try and get some use out of it, i wouldn't buy one and then purposely modify it, i'd rather buy Micheal's rosette cutter ( still might when i've got some spare cash. ) Wayne

Thanks Wayne. Is the cutting angle 90° ?

Of course I think that nobody would buy a fancy jig just to modify it.

Yes Markus 90 deg. Wayne

Thanks again! This information helps save experimenting time.