Screws on new Ebony neck won't go in all the way

[bagman67]

You could also, since you're okay with a little scarring on the surface of the neck-heel, try cutting a slot in the shaft of the broken-off screw with a Dremel thin grinding wheel and then trying to back it out with a slot-head screwdriver.

 

[jond4]

You could also, since you're okay with a little scarring on the surface of the neck-heel, try cutting a slot in the shaft of the broken-off screw with a Dremel thin grinding wheel and then trying to back it out with a slot-head screwdriver.

I actually very slightly attempted that. I stopped because I started to feel that if I got a slot into the screw and started to turn it, it would simply crumple. But, that was only a feeling at the time, it might actually work.

And it certainly wouldn't hurt to try, since the alternative is looking to be drilling them out entirely and making the hole bigger anyway.

 

[fdesalvo]

I have a screw extractor set that uses the shanks themselves. In the absence of that attempt, I’d go for dowels and do the 4 bolts proper. Nothing wrong with the 3 bolt ideas, especially since warmoths neck pockets are a snug fit, but my eyeballs would give me grief!  Caveat: No one says you need to look at her butt!

 

[jond4]

Guess what!!!!!

I got the screws out.

And they were in deeper than I thought but how I did it was I slowly worked at them with different size drill bits and my drill press. I used very tiny bits to create a little pocket in the screw shank and then followed with bigger bits to obliterate them. The first one popped out on it's own once I got close enough to the end. The second one was tougher but went faster.

It's certainly not pretty looking but seems like there maybe enough wood left for new screws to bite good enough.

I will have to wait till next week before trying to mount it to the body, just not enough time to try this neck before the gig friday since I already put my old neck on and it's strung up and ready to go. I have an Ibanez for a back up guitar, just would rather play my warmoth

 

[Rick]

:yourock:

 

[mayfly]

That's really great news.  :headbang:

 

[Logrinn]

Awesome. I found myself exhaling as I read it. Glad it worked out.

 

[Strat Avenger]

That's awesome. I'm really happy for you.
:icon_thumright:

 

[MikeW]

I've been following this since you first posted it and am still hoping for a happy ending. (Minds out of the gutter fellahs!!)

I would say, if you've got a little time to spend on it, and it seems like you've got the patience for it, you might want to try to drop in threaded inserts now. You've already expanded the existing holes, and it wouldn't take much more to finish the necessary expansion, thread the holes and install the inserts.

Just my $0.02, but I think you'll be really pleased with the results once you've got the inserts installed.

 

[rgand]

Cool. Glad you were able to get those out. Now you can move forward with it.

 

[Seamas]

:bananaguitar: :bananaguitar: :bananaguitar: :bananaguitar:

 

[Cagey]

I'm glad to hear of the success there, too. I don't think I'd have tried it outside of perhaps one of my own just to keep it out of the fireplace.

 

[jond4]

I added a picture of what the holes look like now. You can see it's rough to say the least but the largest part is just under 1/4" so yes I believe inserts are still an option or I could attempt filling some of that space with dowel.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AiZhpt9VUCQKL9JH6

Inserts would obviously be the stronger choice. With that route I will need the forstner bits, the inserts and a tap. Which I did start looking for in town last weekend and quickly ran up against the usual problem, actually finding the necessary supplies / tools here. Which means I end up turning to the internet a lot and ordering instead.

Even though I'm extremely interested in finding out what this neck would play like I'm going to order another body next month, finish it and then use this neck on it which puts it out about four months for me. Which forces me take time to make a decision on whether dowels or inserts.

 

[jond4]

I'm glad to hear of the success there, too. I don't think I'd have tried it outside of perhaps one of my own just to keep it out of the fireplace.

Definitely! I got home from work last night and was looking it over and said to myself, nothing is gonna happen unless I try and how it is now is useless and I didn't want to waste such a nice neck plus the $350 so off to the garage I went with it.

You can see from the pic the bit still skipped off a lot making a cone shape of the pilot hole down to when I was getting more zeroed in and keeping the bit on the shank better. I think if I ever have to do it again I would be able to do a cleaner job but I hope it doesn't happen again

 

[Cagey]

At this stage of the game, I think I'd consider doing the dowel thing rather than inserts. Inserts force you to use machine screws for fasteners, which are very particular about alignment. With a dowel and a new 1/8" pilot hole, you can use wood screws again which will drive into anything. Machine screws, on the other hand, would be very easy to cross-thread if the alignment isn't perfect, which would require a whole new repair operation.

 

[jond4]

At this stage of the game, I think I'd consider doing the dowel thing rather than inserts. Inserts force you to use machine screws for fasteners, which are very particular about alignment. With a dowel and a new 1/8" pilot hole, you can use wood screws again which will drive into anything. Machine screws, on the other hand, would be very easy to cross-thread if the alignment isn't perfect, which would require a whole new repair operation.

I agree, there's room for error with dowels.

I only need for them to be sized well enough that they glue in properly and I can easily enough put the neck into the pocket and use the holes on the body as guides for drilling new pilot holes through them. Plus even though I essentially created a big cone shape tapering in it still feels there is a lot of bite left when I test fit the proper screws only a little last night ( I ordered a bunch from warmoth and have a lot of spares now ) they felt as if I could screw the neck on right now and it would still work. Although my concern is over time and just having dowels should do perfectly well enough in that regard.

 

[BigSteve22]

Glad to see you got those buggers out! I was thinking about exactly what you did, but as I never actually tried it myself, I didn't want to suggest it and have it screw you up even more.

Gotta agree with Kevin regarding dowels vs. inserts. Those holes aren't exactly centered on the pilots, so the insets won't be exactly centered either. Good chance of major problems there. Also, the dowels aren't going to be anywhere as hard as the ebony, making wood screws an even easier choice.

If you do decide to go with the inserts, you will definitely need a 5/16-16 bottoming tap, which is not a standard size. I stripped inserts trying to get them into maple without using a tap, I couldn't even imagine trying to that with ebony.

 

[bagman67]

If you want to go with dowels, consider getting a plug-cutter bit and cutting plugs to suit.  By using plugs instead of conventional dowels, you can actually get screws into cross-grain, which will be likely to hold better than if you screw into end grain.


https://www.woodcraft.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=plug+cutters&button=search&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=%5BADL%5D%20%5BNon-Brand%5D%20Tools%20%26%20Accessories%20-%20General%20Tools%20%26%20Accessories%20(Broad)&utm_term=%2Bplug%20%2Bcutter&utm_content=Cutters%20-%20Plug&adlclid=ADL-76b4552d-75ed-4178-a8e9-14c98a483d13

 

[MikeW]

I've got to agree with Cagey about using dowels now that I've seen the pictures. This holes aren't going to allow for inserts to be properly aligned and unless you're willing to cut hole into a body to match the alignment of the inserts, it'll just be more of the same misalignment woe.

 

[jond4]

I'm definitely going to do the dowel/plug option. I might honestly try that this weekend depending on how busy I might be, we will see