spring claw holes drilling ...what a pain !

[frenchie]

Ok guys , I had that MJT strat body laying around and thought ; what the heck let's build that thing !

But then I came up to the dreadful spring claw holes to drill ... Man what a PAIN !
Bought a right angle drill extension ( the whole assembly BARELY was fitting into the cavity so I had to drill a tiny pre hole without the right angle extension at first to be able to shove the end of the drill bit in there ) and drilled them after carefully noting the spacing between the two holes and all on some tape , I drilled them with MUCH care , taking care of having the angle of the holes as flat as possible into the body ....
BUT for some reason the horizontal angle of the second screw hole started to shift without me noticing ...
And here's how it ended up looking :
https://www.mediafire.com/view/xsml1x0d ... 3.jpg/file

as you can see the slight angle of the right screw yanks the claw too close from the left side of the cavity ...
Any easy fix for that ?
Enlarging holes is a no no if I'm hoping to have tight functioning screws ....
Maybe order somewhere ( where ? ) a custom drilled claw with slightly offset holes ( like a millimeter left for the left hole ) ?
Bending the screws a bit would be fugly and messy if I hope to be able to keep their functionality ....

I mean the springs don't touch the left side of the cavity , and scratching the springs reveal how resonant that body is ( I had hoped for that and got that in spades ) ... It's annoying the perfectionist in me to no end ^^
If anyone has a crafty idea feel free to comment !

[danman]

You can purchase the correct drill bit from most hardware stores. They are about 12" long and allow you to drill the correct angle holes without the drill touching the guitar body. Because of the shallow angle the holes are drill at, you must have the long drill bit so that the drill does not touch the body. Also be sure to use a centerpunch to mark the holes to prevent the drill bit from walking.

You could drill out the misplaced hole with a larger bit and glue in a hardwood dowel. This would allow you to redrill the new hole in the correct location.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-1 ... /202256169

[danman]

I noticed that you are in France and not the US. Just search for 12" aircraft bit (1/8" diameter) and you should be able to find one locally.

[frenchie]

You can purchase the correct drill bit from most hardware stores. They are about 12" long and allow you to drill the correct angle holes without the drill touching the guitar body. Because of the shallow angle the holes are drill at, you must have the long drill bit so that the drill does not touch the body. Also be sure to use a centerpunch to mark the holes to prevent the drill bit from walking.

You could drill out the misplaced hole with a larger bit and glue in a hardwood dowel. This would allow you to redrill the new hole in the correct location.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-1 ... /202256169

Thanks for the answer .....yes I knew about the long aircraft drill ...tried to find it in a hardware store in France but no success in that thin diameter .... thought about ordering one in the usa , but during coronavirus shipping was very disrupted , so I preferred not running the risk .....I also pre punched the hole for the drill not to drift , but here's the setup I used ;

https://www.mediafire.com/view/lycf2ok6 ... 3.jpg/file

the second mandrin where you tighten the drill bit is attached by an hexagonal magnet , and the tolerances aren't very good , so with the force applied it became wobbly ....
I guess I've been a slight bit impatient and attempted to play my chance by doing it a bit ghetto with what I had handy ....the right angle extension plus the bit did fit into the cavity so I thought I was golden ....the vertical angle is right into the cavity , but i's horizontally that It leans ....

Honestly with the gear I have handy , I won't play with redrilling the hole and putting a dowel , too much chances of worsening the situation , which isn't so so bad of a situation actually , I only have one millimeter of horizontal shift that impair the alignement of the holes in the claw ...the first hole I did drill was actually perfect , really spot on , it's the second one that shifted ( you can see it in the picture ) ....
I think having a metal worker making me a bespoke claw with slightly shifted holes maybe a sounder solution to this , refilling holes with superglue mixed with sawdust , dowels etc , in a place where there will be especially high tension in the wood from the whole spring assembly seems a bit risky , at least if done by me with the limited gear I have .

[frenchie]

Ok here's what I did this morning .

https://www.mediafire.com/view/lu53czhf ... 9.jpg/file

i had a very tiny round file laying around in my toolbox ...I filed the right hole on the metal claw just a nudge so it could align better with the hole in the wood ....Works like a charm ....Under tension the springs all still ring the same , so no major imbalance of the claw and the tiny loss of weight of the claw didn't impair anything , the head of the screw is still vastly larger in diameter compared to the hole so it's still retaining it's power to restrain the claw in place under tension ....

Maybe later in time I'll try to find some metal worker able to build me a new claw with the proper holes ( if you all got contacts of people with the tools to cut and bend steel .... I'm looking a you guys who make Marshall chassis for DIY ) ....plus they'll probably be more sturdy than the fender one ( and actually , while measuring , in found that my particular fender one had misaligned holes , which surely enhanced my hole "shift " drama ) , with longer teeth ( yes that Eric Johnson fender claw 's teeths appear to be sensibly shorter than on vintage claws , trying to save some cents of steel on the hardware fender ? ) ...