4 Attachment(s)
Drilling the through body string holes
It's been a while since the last update on the build. I have had to figure out how to drill the through body holes. The drill press I had access to was not deep enough to reach the position for the holes, and the other equipment a friend had to drill mounting holes in cabinets would not be acurate enough. So I ended up solving the problem using a router. We purchases a 1/4" to 1/8" reducer for the router mount, which worked well since the through body holes are meant to be 1/8". I also bought a new bridge since the holes on the one that came with the kit were not straight.
So after finding the centre line of the guitar and marking up the holes ...
Attachment 11466
I lined up the router and gave myself a clamped down straight edge to ensure the holes would be drilled in a nice straight line ...
Attachment 11467
Attachment 11468
Attachment 11469
Block of wood clamped underneath to stop splintering and after several practice rounds on a spare piece of timber, off I went.
5 Attachment(s)
Drilling the through body string holes - part 2
The result for the holes was good.
Front & Back
Attachment 11470 Attachment 11471
Next was to counter sink the holes at the rear for the ferrules. An 8 mm drill was proving to make the holes a little too big on the test run so, went with a 7.5 mm drill bit. Interesting point was that I could not find a wood drill bit at any of the hardware stores nearby (the big green shed was out too) so I went with a hybrid drill bit for steel, plastic and wood. Now this bit bit hard and tore out plugs very quickly so I ended up with a bit of splintering around the edges of the holes. The drill bit was sharp all the way up, recommend you don't buy one of these.
Attachment 11472
However the holes were sunk to the right depth thanks to masking tape on the drill bit and were still pretty much in line ...
Attachment 11473
So after counter sinking the edges to clean them up I got a pretty decent result. The ferrules will need a slight tap to get them into place once the sanding, grain filler, more sanding and DT has been applied, but then they will be nice and tightly in place.
Attachment 11474
Onto the sanding ...