My first build: DTL-1

Depth...

Attachment 33978

and diameter...

Attachment 33979

...look OK. So using this filler:

Attachment 33980

...and a toothpick we get this:

Attachment 33981

Leave for a couple of hours to let the filler dry, then clip off the excess toothpick and sand a little:

Attachment 33982

Toothpick looks a little dark, filler a little light (which is a pity, because it was a good match then wet). Will see how it looks with some finish on it; there's still the option of trying a darker filler if required.

Also dowelled up the bridge screw holes. This was more work that I'd anticipated. The holes appear to be a little too big for the 3mm dowel to fit tightly:

Attachment 33983

...and the next-largest I could find was just over 5mm:

Attachment 33984

Which is annoyingly larger than my 5mm drill bit:

Attachment 33985

(That last photo was hard to take, and I see that it looks like the bit was at an angle when measured -- the reading on the caliper is the real width of the cutting edge, though.)

Well, needs must: drilled the holes using the 5mm bit:

Attachment 33986

...and cut dowels to length:

Attachment 33987

Next step, a metric shit-ton of sanding so as to be able to fit 5.1mm dowels into 4.75mm holes. Sanded inside the holes with roll of sandpaper on the handle of a modelling file:

Attachment 33988

...plus a bit of careful sanding of the dowels, trying to keep them as close to round as possible. After what felt like a week of sanding, and two blistered thumbs, they went in with encouragement from a mallet (I'd deliberately cut them a few mm long):

Attachment 33989

A spot of normal sanding, and they're done!

Attachment 33990

So, all in all, quite a busy day. Tomorrow I'm planning to put a coat of finish on the headstock offcut to see how that comes out, and also rout out the bridge pickup hole a bit towards the neck, because it's quite tight in there, and I think Simon was right when earlier he suggested that that might be the cause of the wonky bridge angle. One of the holes for the bridge screws was oversized, and my theory is that the too-small rout meant that I put the bridge on at an angle, and when I put the screws in, one of them actually carved out its own hole that overlapped with the existing one. I didn't notice this happening -- none of the screws was hard to put in -- but it would explain a lot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gpjt

Next step, a metric shit-ton of sanding

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A bit scientific about the quantities going on.

cheers, Mark.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gpjt

Next step, a metric shit-tonne of sanding

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FTFY.

useless text just to meet the 12 character requirement

Oh I disagree Simon. If you say 'tonne' then surely 'metric' is superfluous. Its only 'ton' that needs to be qualified, metric, imperial, long, short etc...

The good thing about metric shit-ton(ne)s is that I only have 2 blistered thumbs, as opposed to 2.03209, 1.81437, or some other number, which would be confusing and inconvenient.

One coat of finishing oil on the offcut with the filled holes, and the wood filler (on the right) is looking OK -- not perfect, as (of course) the oil is highlighting the edge, and there's no grain inside it, but the colour is matching and given that it's 2mm across I suspect it won't be a huge issue. The toothpick (on the left) is too dark.

Attachment 33996

(If there were only one hole, I reckon either would work, as the toothpick could be mistaken for a knot in the wood. But with six in a straight line, it needs to match pretty well to not look weird.)

Time to rout out the bridge pickup cavity a bit. First, put the bridge in place, with the centre screw hole (the only undowelled one) aligned...

Attachment 33997

...in order to draw a line around it, to make sure I don't get carried away and rout out something that isn't hidden under the bridge:

Attachment 33998

Sketch out what feels like a sensible maximum:

Attachment 33999

...and rout it out with the Dremel tool:

Attachment 34000

Now, with the centre screw hole in place, I can easily position it such that by eye it looks straight:

Attachment 34001

...or too long on the bass side:

Attachment 34002

...or too long on the treble side:

Attachment 34003

No more time today, but now I know that the next step is to put the neck back on, attach the bridge with the centre screw with enough play so that I can rotate it, put on bottom and top E strings, and work out where the side screw holes should be. Drill them, and (if all goes well) I'm back in business.