I am learning to do side purfling. This purfling, at the bottom of the binding, gets mitered to matching purfling on either side of the end graft. There are a number of ways to do this, but this is how I do it at the moment.
The end graft is installed with purfling along the sides before the binding channels are cut. When the binding channels are cut they are cut just shy of the end graft. The remaining binding channel wood up to the end graft purfling is cut out with a sharp chisel.
Now the issue is how to cut the end graft to the correct length so that the binding will go ‘over’ it with the end graft purfling mitered to the binding purfling. I wanted to trim the excess off the top of the end graft with the same router/bearing setup that cut the binding channel. I have read about using sheets of the same veneer that makes up the side purfling as a spacer to lift the router up so it cuts off the top of the end graft to the height of the side purfling. I came up with an easier/better idea. I just put a stack of copy paper on top of the instrument to space the router up.
With this I can easily lower the router by the thickness of a sheet of paper just by removing a sheet of paper allowing me to sneak up on the correct depth. Very easy and very accurate.
