Gluing the rosette

Today I glued the Rosette. That would be the name of the dark circular thing in the picture here. The rosette serves no purpose other than decorative. No matter how good or bad your rosette looks, it will not affect the sounds produced by your guitar. You might not want to play a guitar with an ugly rosette, but it can still sound good. On KMG's site, the directions call for a glue called Duco. I looked all over the damn place for Duco and although Ken told me he buys it at Home Depot, Walmart, and even drug stores by him, in my area it was not to be found. You would think you could get anything in NY city. But I guess that only applies to drugs and prostitutes...and maybe a few other things. It certainly does not apply to Duco glue. I searched for three days. I called about a dozen places and went to 6. I gave up on finding Duco. You can order it online of course. But I had just made a couple of online purchases and didnt feel like a)paying yet another shipping charge and b) waiting a week to do this rosette.
I also looked on many luthiery sites for insight and inspiration. The book I bought, Guitar Making Tradition and Technology by Cumpiano and Natelson, which if you buy it, go to this link to do so and support the forum that made this build a reality. Here is the link:
http://www.nichebooks.com/kits/booklinks.html
It Bill Cory's site and the purchases are actually made through Amazon.
Anyway, Cumpiano's book is widely considered the bible of guitar building. I didn't have to nerve to contact Ken from KMG and ask him if I could use Titebond, the glue I did everything else with, so I check online and with Cumpiano. The general consensus was that I could. Some people say the water in the glue will swell the wood rosette and cause issues. I took that chance. Why? Because I am crazy...and very very stupid sometimes.
The top picture is of my dry fit test run of gluing the rosette. Everything fits nicely and I think I am ready to go. The extra piece of rosette material is sitting there because it wanted to watch.

The second picture is of my Uber-professional clamping technique. Can you guess that I am also painting? I am. No worries though, that there is No VOC paint. So it does not smell like paint. In this particular application, it makes no difference what type of paint it is, but I felt obligated to let you know since someone might want to duplicate this technique exactly. It is pretty sweet. Notice my "shop" is a bit messy. I have since tidied up so lay off!! You might be saying, "Hey!! I thought you were working in your house, not in the garage!! Whats with the lawn mower dude?"
Well sir, that lawn mower is a toy. It belongs to my son and it will stay right there during many night of building. Until he gets tired of it. Then it will go away.
As you might imagine, I was quite nervous since I once again broke away from the instructions laid out by Ken C. I glued it up, checked in once, twice, three times...then I had to go out. The whole time I was out I was thinking, "The glue made everything swell and the rosette popped out of its channel." I got home and rushed over to my shop to check that my expensive, professional clamping procedure had worked. I threw the paint cans quickly on the floor in a haphazard fashion and as I was about to unveil the results...my wife said, "Hey!! WTF? Put those paint cans away! I cleaned last night and this place was spotless and your "shop" is a disgrace!"
Reluctantly, I moved the cans and neatly put them away. THEN I rushed to unveil my work. And here, without further ado, is what I saw:

You may be saying to yourself, "Hey...that top circle thing isn't closed!! You messed up dick!! Ha ha!! You should have listened to KMG!!!
To you I say, Yes, it is not closed and I probably should have listened to KMG. But here is the thing, that top circle does not have to be closed. It will be covered by the end of the fret board. As will the middle circle. But I went ahead and made that one perfect. In fact, the arrows of the herringbone pattern are almost perfect at the seam. Click on the pic for a bigger version. You'll see.
There you have it. I glued it in, it looks pretty good and the wood that got darker around the sound hole will be sanded and scraped away later on. So I am pretty pleased. I expect to get an e-mail from Ken soon. I did what I had to do and I make no apologies! I hope it works and does not fall out one day while I am playing.