Fixing the Claw Screw Holes

I took my inspiration from this wonderfully informative and witty thread on strat-talk.  Here's a recap

Here's a picture of the way the claw screws were.  You can see that there's not enough distance  between the screws,  but what you can't see is that the right screw is on a very steep angle. I decided to plug and redrill both so as to get the positioning just right.

Although I already  ordered a 12" long 1/8" aircraft drill bit, I learned on strat-talk that I could just buy an extender for my drill, which I managed to obtain at my friendly neighborhood Ace Hardware. The picture below shows it in my drill, ready to go.  Also, under the drill you can see the dowel I'll use to plug the holes.

This next exciting shot shows a hole drilled out, and a dowel ready to be glued in place. This is a swamp ash "vintage tone" dowel - the same kind as used by Pinetop Sideboard, author of "Endust My Broom".






Once the dowel was in place, I redrilled, based on an ingenious cardboard template of my own design.  I coated the screws with wax from Yehuda brand Shabbos candles and, as some people think they say in France, viola!

OK, not perfect, but quite a bit better, and certainly good enough. The only problem is that the guitar now spontaneously plays Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.

I feel a lot better after the fiasco with the screw extractor.  I've been wanting to do this for a while!