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I posted a rather detailed tutorial on purfling and binding. Even if you decide on a different glue type for installing your purfling and binding, it contains a lot of useful information on channel prep that might help you out with fitting the binding. I'll just put the link here rather than repeating the post.

http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/board/vi ... nel#p51702

I have made some progress. The binding and purfling are done. I bought the herringbone purfling from John’s shop and it worked perfect and looks fantastic. It was the perfect addition to the body and I’m glad I bought it. The body is looking pretty good now. I used the cabinet scraper to smooth everything out and get the binding and purfling smooth with the top, sides, and back. Now it’s on to the neck.

looks good

that's the 1st time I've seen b/w purfling run inside the herringbone. I like it!

I do too - looks good

jread wrote:that's the 1st time I've seen b/w purfling run inside the herringbone. I like it!

I thought adding the b/w purfling on the inside made the herringbone pattern stand out more. I have four older sisters who are all quite talented in some form of crafting. Since you all said I could do any combination with the purfling, I tried several different patterns and sent them photos of each pattern. The one that they preferred ended up being too wide of a purfling and my router bit couldn’t cut that wide. So I stepped it back to what you see. I really like how it turned out.

Excellent looking!

So, I might have made a mistake. Was this blue plastic to remain around the truss rod? This truss rod is apparently new to Martin kits and neither the Martin or Bill Cory’s book say what to do. I removed it and then thought better about it because of a comment in the Martin instructions about “The paper that covers the open part of the channel is there to prevent glue from seeping into the rod area.” It seems as if you would take it off otherwise there would be no adhesion between the neck and the rod.

There is also an insert into my kit with directions to install a 2-Way adjustable rod. It is just a piece of paper they threw into the kit. As a result, I assume I have a 2-way adjustable rod. In those instructions, it says to fill the channel with Titebond. It too mentions nothing about the blue plastic.

Thoughts? And as always thanks for your comments and help. I would be losing all my hair if it wasn’t for you all to bounds my thoughts off of.

The cover was suppose to have been there for protection from glue. You can put a wrap of plastic electrical tape over the rod instead of the plastic cover.
Hold it in a vise (lightly) and crank it with the wrench both ways to see how it works.
Filling the channel with titebond seems wrong to me. I've used a couple of dabs of silicone sealer in the channel to keep the rod from rattling. Other than that the rod shouldn't be glued to the neck. Don't get the silicone on anything else, it'll cause you grief when finishing!!
Keep asking your questions! Hopefully you won't get too many differing answers.

Carl

The blue plastic is supposed to stay on.

I've used Titebond I (original) in a thin line along the bottom of my truss rod channels on almost every build. I've never had it interfere with any truss rod function. I've also used a thin line of silicone; either will work.
But, don't fill the channel.