Official Luthiers Forum!

I own the LMI circle/rosette cutter and it is the only one i have used, well made and does its job. Its downfall for me is you can't see it doing its work and you can't see the work itself, you are pretty much working blind. For something as fine and noticeable as a soundhole IMHO any tool which gives me a better look at whats going on would be preferable. The pop stick, both LN and LV tools, perspex/lexan and many assorted home/shop improvements are way better suited to our needs as you can see the cutter at work.

Steve

Oops double post perhaps a mod can remove please.

Thanks Steve

Steve - thanks for the reply. I'm going to pick up one of the circle cutters I mentioned from Lowe's or Home Depot tomorrow and try it out on some cheap spruce I picked up last year and I'll let you know how it goes.

It's disadvantage is that the depth of the cut cannot be adjusted on the tool itself so I'll have to devise a way around that.

It does have the benefit of being able to see very clearly what is happening as you cut.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@guitarwhisperer: i come i never thought of that? ingenious!

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

So for anyone interested, I purchased a $10 circle cutter from Home Depot this evening to try out on some student grade spruce I picked up from RC Tonewoods about a year ago.

I will not be using this tool to cut my rosette channels.

To be fair, the tool is designed to cut through sheet rock, not hardwoods. I had to use *considerable* down force to get the thing to really cut at all. Interestingly, because the thing is designed for actually cutting holes, I thought that I might have trouble with it cutting too deep. This was not the case.

The results might have been satisfactory once the rosette was in place and the area was sanded down, but I am not interesting in satisfactory. I would prefer excellence if at all possible, and I believe using a tool from StewMac or LMI that is made for the job would have yielded much better results.

Yeah, but that blade attachment block fixes that. Great idea!

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Oh, now i see that contraption with the stewmac thing wasn´t tGW´s idea but sanchopanza´s... great idea!

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I've used it, but with some modifications:

-Sharpen the blade! Stock, the blade is, at best sharpish.

-use a pre-drilled hole in the base on the drill press table, so that the cutter has something to register to. Ensure that the table is horizontal so that the cutter makes an even cut all around the circle.

-set the cutter in the drill press to keep it aligned properly, and then turn it by hand. A few turns is enough. Don't turn the drill press on, its really not worth it. Set the blade, and turn the cutter so that it makes a slicing cut. It is possible for it to be set for a plowing cut by reversing the blade.

Used like this, these cutters can work very well.

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Mr. Ingram,

It wasn't a drill attached circle cutter, but I appreciate your response very much! Sadly, I do not own a drill press. I am working with mostly hand tools at the moment, and tried using a $10 manual circle cutter. It wasn't very sharp, and I don't think I'll ever use it again. I'm on a shoestring budget, which is fine because I'm working on my first guitar, but my birthday is next month and the LMI circle cutter is on my list (along with some chisels and radius sanding stuff).

I use this tool to square my drill press table to the drill. I chuck up the circle cutter and adjust the table so that I can spin the bit just touching the table insert I have. I never considered actually using it to route the rosette rebate or cut out the sound hole.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

This is true. I didn't think of it.

However, it is still quite ingenious!

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!