Rosette Sanding

[zendo]

I have a rosette for a classical guitar but it has some mother of pearl within.... Can I put the soundboard with the rosette glued in through the drum sander? Will the pearl be scratched? If so is there another way to manage it....

[simso]

Yes you can, but the pearl will be scratched. The scratches can be removed through simple re-sanding with the appropriate grade of sandpaper

[kiwigeo]

Like Steve says it can be done but I generally don't attack the face of a top with a drum sander once I've got to the stage where the rosette goes in. After glue up of the top set Ill work the face of the top through the drum sander to take out any uneveness around the join and then hand sand down to 120grit before installing the rosette. Working down to final thickness from that point is all done by taking material off the underside of the top....

[zendo]

Thanks Martin.. That's what I do also but the rosette is usually slightly higher than the soundboard so I need to scrap and sand it level.

[zendo]

I notice Bogdanovich uses a drum sander to sand the top then coats with varnish to protect and gets the right thickness from the reverse side... Many ways to do it... Not sure what he does for the rosette although he runs it through the sander top side up to smooth it off..

[Allen]

I always install the rosette just a little shy of the top of the soundboard, and run it through the drum sander until it just cleans up the entire face, making it all level.

I found that if you are using a material for the rosette that is significantly harder than the top, ie. pearl into Western Red Cedar it was difficult to get that transition between the two flat if I had to try and get the rosette down to the level of the surrounding soundboard. Always seemed to undercut the softer wood.

Then fine sand with the palm sander. Final thicknessing of the top is done from the back side after the rosette and face are done as above.