Need help cutting rosettes!

[James Suzda]

Hi,
I need some help and hints on cutting rosettes in red oak. We’ve tried using a drill press and keep getting a lot of chip-out. Next we ‘borrowed’ a milling machine and now we are getting burn marks along with the chip-outs. We’ve tried quarter sawed and flat sawed, with mixed results. We’ve tried spraying the wood with water to soften the fibers and cool the wood, again with mixed results. But, the reject rate is way too high!!
Has anyone successfully cut rosettes in red oak using “rosette cutters” and how did you do it?
Thanks,
Jim

[Travis Porter]

I have done a few, mind you not many, and had the same issues as you although it wasn't in red oak. The lesson I learned was slow. Both drill press and lowering the quill as slow as possible. Let the cutter do the work. I put my drill press at the slowest speed and kept enough force downward on the quill just to hold it in place. Still, I had to do a bit of touch up, and at times, pieces were ruined when a hunk came out. The rosette cutter I have is more like a scraper than a cutter. I have seen some that are true cutters, haven't used them, but it would seem to be a better solution to me than the scraper type.

[Larry Fox]

Yep, same here - lots of tearout so you have be careful and run slow and even then you might get some. I also found it helpful to build a jig that bolted to my DP table that would hold the stock very tightly so it could not move around at all. Real PITA but if you can get a good one they sure do make a nice detail touch.

[Lee Schierer]

Try honing them so they are truly shrp on the corners where the cutting is taking place. My Dad had some wheel cutters for making toy wheels and they were not sharp out of the box. Once he honed them he got nearly no chipout or burning.

[John Brennaman]

I had to make about 120 of them in red oak when I replaced all the trim in the house. I installed a 4-jaw chuck on the spindle of my lathe and installed the rosette cutter in the tail stock. I ran the lathe at a fairly slow speed and wound the cutter into the the block from which I made the rosettes. I had a few blow out but I was able to reverse the stock and start again on the other side. That way there was no wasted material and the blown out side was against the wall so, I alone knew.

[Dave Richards]

James, perhaps you need a different way to make the rosettes. Have you looked at the Legacy Ornamental Mills? They have a rotary table accessory that is great for making rosettes among other things. You use a router instead of a cutter in a drill press. You can also make rosette styles you could never make with cutters in the DP.

If this is something of interest to you, send me a PM and I'll send you more info.