Drilling odd body holes: I need advice and courage !!!

[Steve_Karl]

I'm almost ready to order neck, body and parts to do nylon strung strat ... similar to this one: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=11042.15
but I hate pickguards and top routes so I'm thinking of drilling 6 holes ( as small as possible ... and I have a drill press ) to get the ghost saddle wires down into the rear route cavity.
I'll have to drill a channel from the inner wall of the rear route cavity to the bottom of the holes but that will have to be a low speed hand held drill.
I suspect I'll be able to find a long enough drill bit, but haven't yet looked.

Advice and comments will be appreciated.

Here's how it might look: Neck will most likely be bloodwood / jet black ebony. 1 volume control.
I'll fill the indexing hole with something as close as I can find to the maple top. Advice on this would be appreciated also.

 

[m4rk0]

Nice! I would like to know exactly the same!! have been thinking about this too!

 

[Steve_Karl]

I think your comment the other day about covering up AAA flame maple with a pickguard put me onto this more seriously.

The initial drilling, whether 6 holes or a channel would be small pilot holes first.

It would be easier to do the connect from the rear cavity if the 6 holes in the top were only one channel ... like this ...

... but I'd have a hard time getting that top channel to look clean I suspect. I don't have a router. I'd have to do it all with the drill press and clean up the edges with an XActo knife and then sand paper .... eeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr .... that's still looking sloppy in my mind.

I have a dremel .... hummm .... and the dentists flexible extension ...... hummm ..... and some cutting wheels ......... ahhhhhh .......

Maybe I need to do a practice run on some scrap before I order.
If I can't get it in 2 tries then I'll have to have the body routed for HB in the bridge and use a pickguard.

=======================================

The ghost saddle connectors are approx.  .157 x .08.
And mine aren't color coded like I think the manual says they're supposed to be.
I guess I'll have to mark them with little dots of acrylic paint as I take them off the connecting block.

 

[Cagey]

Y'know, with the economy being what it is and so many out of work, the selection of tools available on Craig's List and eBay is pretty substantial. You may be able to pick up a router very reasonably. They're a handy tool to have. Although, I don't know if I'd choose chewing on such a nice body as a first router project. There are a lot of things you can do with a router that are somewhere between difficult and impossible any other way, but unfortunately one of the things on that list is "Irreversibly destroy things in the blink of an eye". Still, if you're good with tools it's worth thinking about. The methods you're thinking about trying are likely to produce less-than-stellar results if the cut is going to be visible.

 

[pabloman]

I think if you went string thru with a recessed TOM it would look a lot cleaner. Just get a nice long bit and drill from the output jack hole straight to where the saddles would be.  :dontknow:

 

[Steve_Karl]

To Cagey: I do have a router I inherited from my dad but it's the hand held kind. I've never tried to use it on anything so that's why I didn't mention it.
Maybe some day, but I'd feel much safer connecting the dots with the dremel and the cutting wheels.
I've done quite a bit of strange things with those wheels. The best part of them is that it's high speed and you can move very slowly.
The side edges of the wheels also work like a very delicate grinder / sander if I'm cautious and using a magnifier.

Then again, just 6 holes and connecting them all with the long drill bit might be the best option.
Under neath ... if I miss by a bit then I can just wiggle over and there's not real loss.

To pabloman: I so used to and always need the flexibility of 2 screws per saddle, so a tom isn't an option for me.
Any way, I've already got the ghost saddles for a narrow strat.

"the output jack hole" ... yea ... I'll have to look at that more closely on my other 2.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Update:

Well I guess I'm going to have to do a few practice runs on a few blocks of mahogany I used for test finishing a while back.
I'll do the 6 holes only ... 2 times ... take photos ... and then convert both into channels using the dremel ... take photos again ...
and we'll see if it's something worth trying on a maple top.

Hummm .... maybe I'd better try to get some maple scrap.

 

[Cagey]

The wood isn't going to be the problem. You could practice what you're proposing on scrap pine 2x4s. The problem is going to be tool control.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Thanks.

I might have to do this dremel work station mod. project I imagined a while back first.
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15450.0

 

[Cagey]

There's an old saying you've probably heard... "When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" <grin>

Dremel motors are an indispensable tool and everybody should own one, but they're often over-applied. I sometimes think they come up with all the various miracle attachments available for those things on a dare...

Dim: Betcha can't run that stamping press with one of those!
Dum: Oh, yeah? Waitaminnit... (goes and fabs a chuck adaptor)
Dim: This oughta be good. Where's my beer?
Dum: Ok. Here we go! (motor stalls and starts to burn)

The reality of the thing is it's a tiny motor without a helluva lotta torque, and most of the attachments are plastic and aren't designed to take any torque anyway so you can't make accurate cuts due to tool movement under stress. I've smelled more than one Dremel motor sweating magic smoke because somebody chucked too large of a tool into it or tried to cut too ornery a material or otherwise ran it too long under too much load.

Routing is the way to do this. If you're not confident with a definite-purpose router, just save up a few beer cans and pay someone who is to cut that slot for you. You'll be glad you did.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Thanks Cagey.
I'll consider having someone route it,
but I'll still probably try 2 practice pieces with the drill press and dremel, just to see how it goes.

 

[Cagey]

Absolutely. Won't cost you anything but time, and it might work out ok after all.