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This turned out mostly successful. The pic is representative of how the channel came out all the way around the top. The back was no issue as you would expect. I have a little bit of sanding to do around that channel as there is some minute areas where my hand purfling cut was. a skosh wider than the router cut, like no more than .005" but a little ledge is there that will need to be smoothed away. I do this with a flexible finger nail file board. I will expect to get a nice close fit on the pufling/binding glue up.
The next step which I've not done before is to hand cut the binding channels that will go under the fretboard and between the heel cap and back. I will take my time here as I could screw it up easily.

That's going to look great Kevin after you've got it all bound up. Red accents will color it up nicely, esp w/ the Redwood..

That is looking great! I believe the color scheme for your binding and purfling will look awesome.

Benjy

Hand cutting of binding/purfling channels at the neck top and heel are done, and the bindings are bent, ready to start gluing them in. This is the first time I've done separate purfling strips, so a new challenge for me to get these glued in properly. Hope to start tonight!

Top bindings/purflings are on.
Working with 3 separate purfling strips was NO picnic. But I got it done. It looks pretty good. The back will have the same scheme.

Kevin

Very nice!

I LIKE it Kevin!

What glue did you use Kevin? It's a dance to have several purfs and binding in a gooy mess trying to beat the drying and no gap clock...yea? To me that is just one of the many areas were lutherie goes from mechanics to art.
Looks great Kevin

Randy I'm using the LMI AR glue, the new stuff that is yellow. Working time is not all that long when you are in a 85 degree shop, so this was surely a challenge. I spent the weekend at the lovely central coast of California, but arrived home yesterday in time to install the bindings/purflings on the back. Same scheme, same mess. It turned out pretty good as well. It was a bummer when I took off the twill tape and the binding tape an hour later to find that I neglected to make sure the bindings were all the way down in the channel at the heel. Not bad, but an area that had to be filled with sawdust and glue. Appears it will still look okay, but I don't know WHY I didn't look and tap those babies down because when I dry fit them they went all the way down in the channel there. Another lesson learned.
No picture, but I started scraping and sanding them down and I got a good fit all around. Had a little chip on the end of one binding strip at the butt joint when I was doing the final fit trimming with my chisel. I guess the chisel wasn't sharp enough, so not sure how that is going to look yet.

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