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this is my first build but i couldn't help trying to add an armrest. i glued the top down leaving out most of the kerf where the armrest would go. made the armrest out of bubinga then glued black and white veneers to the bottom and the side facing the soundboard. cut the top and side to receive the armrest. glued in the armrest adding kerf to the sides and the top. i am fairly happy with the result but it seem like the veneer i got from lmi doesnt quite match the purfling i got from from stewmac. and curly bubinga is kind of a pain to bend.

now to figure out how to get the neck on...

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Patch,

Well done - an approach for doing an armrest I haven't seen before. There's something about the idea of cutting into the top and side as you do that gives me the willies. It reminds me of one approach I saw for doing a Florentine cutaway which was to take a completed body to a bandsaw and just cut out the cutaway region. Yikes!

Actually, in truth your approach doesn't scare me that much and it has a couple of things going for it: it doesn't use a veneer to worry about sanding through and it creates an armrest that you can sand perfectly flush with the sides and top. To avoid the problem of matching purfling with veneer, I would be tempted to skip adding veneer to the armrest prior to its installation and after route channels to continue the same purfling from the rest of the body to the top and side regions of the armrest.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

An interesting approach and nicely done. Do you have any in-progress photos that show how you did it?

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

thanks! i am curious to see how it holds up.


i was a little unsure about it at first myself but i have many many years of experience scribing cabinets, crown molding and base board so i just went to for it. its not that tricky if you take your time and do little by little.



not sure there is a bit that could get in there and do that and even if there was that makes me more nervous than cutting the top. getting continuous purfling along the top and side was important to me and i'm thinking maybe the best fix is to just make purfling from the veneer.




i meant to but forgot. i have another that is a few steps behind and i'll try to remember. not sure when that will be though.

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