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anyone have any pictures of routing binding channels ???? I have a pretty good idea but since this is my first try thought I would solicit some ideas

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MK5acoustics.com

Here's what I use to route a "fade-in / fade-out" style Laskin armrest ... just a piece of plexi for the top marquetry router template and a 4mm lamination of maple as a router template to deepen the side binding channel.

David what router bit are you using?

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
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Hey Fred ... my top marquetry (bw/paduak/bw) is 3mm thick ... got a two flute 3mm bit at Atlas (Festool bits are in metric). To deepen the side binding slot, I just used a two flute 1/4" bit.

David, thanks for posting these pics. I started my first armrest guitar a couple years ago and it got stuck on the shelf as I got sidetracked by other projects.

One question. The side of the soundboard binding is at a 90 degree angle to the soundboard; however, the face and side of the armrest veneer are at some other angle (at least to start with). What is your process for trimming the edge of the armrest veneer to an angle that mates with the binding (i.e., 90 degrees to the soundboard)?

Kelby, there is a lot of info on this forum if you use the search function. There are also a few tutorials in the vids and tutorials section showing different methods of doing this. I used Tony Karol's tutorial when I did mine. It was very informative. viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=12468&hilit=armrest+karol

Yes .. that tutorial gives a good description of how I now do the top binding and purfling - I made a template just like Dave wren a couple years ago and now can continue the side purfling all the way around the bottom edge of the armrest, just like a Ryan style would have. Once you get all the edge binding on, plane/scrape/sand the bevel in really flat, and then veneer it with the same wood as the binding.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks, Tony. I had followed your tutorial, but was still lost on how to integrate the veneer (which you hadn't done in the original tutorial). In fact, I think I posted a question in that thread about the veneer, but the answers didn't quite make sense to me. Now it makes sense.

Here's how I used to do mine:

viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=15994&p=228457&hilit=armrest+bevel#p228457

The general method is the same, but now I use a generic template kind of like a French curve, doing small sections at a time. This way I can do pretty much any style of guitar and not have to have a bajillion templates.