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Still tool shopping and I need something to cut my purfling/binding channels. For now I think I'll go with either LMI's gramil or stewmac's purfling cutter seeing as a dremel + jig is a bit out of my budget. Does anyone have any experience with either of these?

Dan-
Hand cutting purfling and binding rabbets is in the 'high-skill' category for me- there is quite a bit on the line in time and money, which adds to the stress level. I put up with the noise and dust and use a router.
If you've decided not to use a router, then building a gramil as Filippo suggests is the most economical way to go. The commercial gramils are not cheap but would probably give you more of a chance to cut a binding channel (better blade). Books by Irving Sloane, David Russell Young, and Kinkead all have instructions for Gramils and rosette tools.
Cheap Dremel knock-offs sell in my area for under $15. Even with a 'real' Dremel cutting binding rabbet is a slow job, but they are handy for saddle slots and rosettes.
It's not clear what you have in the way of power tools available to you. You can make your own router jigs, etc, but you generally need some tools to make them with.
A laminate trimmer with home-made guide/base will take care of all your rosette and binding/purfling cutting. You can get them fairly cheaply.
Some very knowledgeable builders use a gramil/trammel cutter with a blade to score the cut line before using the router- it helps avoid tearout.

Cheers
John

Thanks for the advice guys! I'll certainly do my best to see what I can make by hand. As for power tools, I have quite a few general ones (bandsaw, drill, orbital sander, jigsaws, tablesaws, and so on) and I'm currently working out ways to make jigs for them so they can be used with the task at hand. Its the finesse tools where I'm really lacking, planes, scrapers, reamers, chisels etc. So I'm doing the smartest thing I can think of, asking you guys with the experience.

I have LMI's gramil. I like the design, well most of the design. The blade is hard to hold to sharpen. But Sam pointed out that the blade for the Sloane cutter will fit the gramil. Its long enough to make sharpening less of a hassle.

Somewhere in the archives you'll find a thread by Waddy on how he made is cutter. If you are going that route its well worth the read.

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Aoibeann