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All:

I am installing my first abalone rosette. The material is less than .04" thick, however, the b/w/b strips that will border this material are a full .10" tall. Since the abalone has no tolerance for thinning until the color is gone, the channel is as close to that .04 as I can make it.

When I try to assemble the pieces, the strips are too tall for the channel and they are very hard to manage and keep in place as I try to use CA glue to hold them.

Does anyone have any tricks to hold things in place?

In the shot, the thin piece on the masking tape near the center of the circle is the edge of the abalone. The deep extra groove is for soundhole binding.

I usually pre-bend the bwb (350 degrees? on electric bender) around a flat round form cut from soundboard and layup with teflon strips in place of the pearl. Then I seal with shellac and glue everything in the soundboard with duco, titebond or CA. I'm only using wood and pearl, no plastic.

I also prebend on a bending iron. They bend easy enough that it you might be able to a heat gun and a can to put enough of a curve in so they do not pop out.

These are wood (fiber?) strips, not plastic. I will give the bending technique a try. Thanks

Ed

ruby@magpage.com wrote:These are wood (fiber?) strips, not plastic. I will give the bending technique a try. Thanks

Ed

I never have used plastic. Both the fiber or the wood purfling will set a bend with heat.

you don't need to steam them find a pipe or something round about the size you need, Run under hot water or
using a steam iron give them a few seconds of steam then pull them around the pipe . use a few clamps
let cool
that is about it