@tej

Yes it makes a nice neat hole that you can plug

Mr Talisker visited

@tej A very nice dram indeed. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥂

@tej Use a bit of bees wax on the threads of your screws to lubricate them and they will go in much easier. 👍

There is an easy way to get broken screws out

@rocknroller912 Worked a treat, Mark suggested the same. If you overlook where the finish is a bit destroyed where I had to twist the pickup mount off it’ll be hidden under the mount. The finish isn’t as horrible as it looks I. Hopefully I can make that good.

@tej

Good job I’m glad that it worked for you. Being able to fix mistakes as they happen gives a lot more confidence when building. I always do a dry run fitting parts before any finishing to avoid things like broken screws. Also I never use power tools for soft metal screws as they chew the heads easily. 

Posted by: @rocknroller912

I always do a dry run fitting parts before any finishing to avoid things like broken screws

@rockneoller912 same here, all the times when things go right, that’s what happened 😬

Posted by: @rocknroller912

Also I never use power tools for soft metal screws as they chew the heads easily. 

Didn’t use power tools, just not used to hard woods and used an incompetently small pilot, clearly not the strongest of screws either mind 🙂

@tej

Looks like you’ve had a life time supply of bad luck all in one build. This should mean that your next ones will go with no problems.

Posted by: @rocknroller912

Looks like you’ve had a life time supply of bad luck all in one build

@rocknroller912 I can honestly say I every mistake has been down to trying to rush something when I should have just come back to it the day after. That said I’ve learnt a lot from the screw ups, you’re right the next build will be less problematic for sure, at the same time though fixing the mistakes and still having a nice instrument at the end of it has absolutely been worth it.

Posted by: @tej

Didn’t use power tools, just not used to hard woods and used an incompetently small pilot, clearly not the strongest of screws either mind 🙂

@tej My rule of thumb: whatever screws you want to use for whatever purpose, use your callipers to measure the “outside thread” width. If, for arguments sake, some scratch plate screws measured 3mm width. Use a 2.5mm drill bit to drill your pilot holes. Whatever the thread width measures on any screw, use a drill bit 0.5mm smaller. 👍

@boo that’s a good system, annoyingly one that never occurred to me before!

@tej Also, like I said earlier, put a small amount of bees wax on the thread of each screw. Doing this lubricates and eases the action of putting the screw in, it helps take strain off the screw. If the screws are not good quality, they will sheer off easily under that screwing and twisting action. So, reducing those forces as much as possible by drilling the correct sized pilot holes and lubricating the screw threads, vastly reduces the risk of snapping/breaking/sheering the screws. 👍

Posted by: @tej

that’s a good system, annoyingly one that never occurred to me before!

@tej Yeah it took me a while to figure it out. Ask me how I know. 🤣👍

Right, so I’ve fixed the screw and the electrics, turns out it was down to a bad earth connection where I had a glut of wires coming together. Decided to take everything out and rewire outside the guitar so I could make much shorter wires. Now just the truss Rod adjuster cover to go, I’ve a few options but I’m thinking making one from an off cut or rosewood would actually look best, opinions welcome!? These are the other options but I’m not madly keen on any of them!

Posted by: @tej

Right, so I’ve fixed the screw and the electrics, turns out it was down to a bad earth connection where I had a glut of wires coming together. Decided to take everything out and rewire outside the guitar so I could make much shorter wires. Now just the truss Rod adjuster cover to go, I’ve a few options but I’m thinking making one from an off cut or rosewood would actually look best, opinions welcome!? These are the other options but I’m not madly keen on any of them!

@tej They don’t always have to be symmetrical. I made an offset one for this guitar build. It’s made from plastic but it could be wood or metal I suppose. 

Posted by: @boo

They don’t always have to be symmetrical.

@boo those were just the ones I’d picked up, for the wooden one I was contemplating a miniature version of the whole headstock, can’t decide if that’d look nice or a bit cheesy. I’m loathed to put plastic over it given all the lovely wood and chrome.

Incidentally to anyone reading this, be mindful of how much space you have to turn a hex key if you don’t have access straight in and need to use the small angled end like me, it’s pure luck that there is just enough room to turn the key and be able to relocate it!

@tej   I like to make the truss rod cover from wood to match the headstock. If you're going to have a scaled down headstock shape, maybe it would look good in a contrasting wood.

Great job @tej! 

For the truss rod cover my suggestion is to match the headstock so it blends in and doesn’t obscure that nice looking wood!

@robin I have maple or mahogany, could use the mahogany which would match the neck, I’ll mock one up and see how it goes.

Posted by: @mattbeels

match the headstock

@mattbeels this was where I was leaning before robin’s suggestion of still wood but contrasting, I can try both i suppose. I don’t want it to be too prominent, that chrome one definitely takes up too much space!

EDIT WORKS! What mysterious powers were at work to fix that!!

So the edit button works?!? Awesome, now where’s that @tv101?