Hi Glenn,

Guess what? I have done this before myself. You get so focused on one task and you forget about the procedures you need to follow. I have joined backs together either by first joining the plates and then routing the purfling groove and inlaying the purfling or installing purfling full depth of the back plates and gluing up everything together. These are just 2 different schools of thought.

Routing the purfling channel is really not a hard task at all. Just make sure you have a good straight edge fence to guide the router, a sharp carbide blade and make sure your back plate and fence are securely clamped down. Your second pass to cut the exact channel width is the hardest. What I use for the routing fence is the Bessemeyer Fence on my table saw. I slip the back plate beneath the fence and use it to guide the router. i can then adjust the fence very accurately for the next cut.

Another option you may have is to just slice the plates apart with the band saw or table saw and start over – that is if you have enough wood and you have not cut the back to shape yet.

David