Reclaimed reverse Firebird – day 5
I managed to get two additional coats of Tung oil applied today.
Between each coat, I sand down the entire body with 400 grit paper.
After a liberal coating of oil, I wipe away any excess, paying particular attention to the logo. Oil collects in the grooves and wants to drip and run when I hang it up. I was surprised to notice the combination of the blue dye and the low-gloss oil finish are giving the body a metallic sheen. Its kind of cool.
Between the second and third coats, I decided to install the tuners in the head of the guitar. This neck came with standard 9mm holes drilled in it, and my tuners are 10mm in diameter. They won’t fit.
To fix this, I only need to ream out the holes with a 10mm (or 3/8″) drill bit. Once that was done, the tuners fit great.
Next challenge was to line them up, making sure to keep the gaps, between the knobs, evenly spaced. I originally lined them up perpendicular to the head, but they seemed too difficult to adjust. I rotated them down so the tuners were offset from each other, and this gave me a bit more room for my fingers. After locating them, I punched a small hole at the screw’s location, with my awl.
Using my smallest drill bit (1/16″) I drilled a starter hole about 1/8″ deep. The screws were barely larger than the bit, so I didn’t want to drill the full depth of the screw and risk stripping the threads in the wood.
After carefully screwing them in, by hand, I attached the threaded bushings from the other side.
The tuning machines are installed and the neck is set aside.
Here is a shot of the body after the third coat of oil, applied several hours later.
Midnight Woodworking 