Official Luthiers Forum!

I know the topic of what can or cannot be done during the humid days of summer has been covered, but I don't think this particular item was mentioned. Do you think it would be OK to inlay a rosette during the high humidity season or would that result in gaps after things got drier?

Thanks,
Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

Pat ,is your shop humid?
Or just the outside air?

If you have 60+ humidity in the shop I'd wait.
Especially if making a wood rose.

I do not inlay roses or glue up backs & tops or necks in 60+
I just feel better not doing it in that humidity.
Plus I've never had a crack or shrinkage problem when doing the
glue-ups at 40 -45% .
Hot muggy days are for-- -clean my shop & find lost tools!
Also cut up brace stock and get all the ingredients for
future guitars set up.
My shop is at 50% with A/C but this has been a brutal
summer here on the east of No.America!

Mike

_________________
Mike Collins

Thanks Mike. I guess I'll wait too. I don't want seams around my rosette.

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I have no emperical observation to back me up, so no need to tear into me if I am wrong. Wood inlayed into wood, if all pieces were at about the same humidity, will all shrink or expand together. So, it shouldn't matter what the humidity is.

I have had a real problem though with getting some prefabricated wood rosettes too wet when gluing, in which case they can crack and open terribly when everything dries. This has nothing to do with the room humidity. With some brands of rosettes, I brush them with water after gluing to get them to expand tightly. These brands expand irreversibly, and it works great. However, recently, I got some that shrink again when they dry, and those were ruined and will need to replaced.