Steel Guitar Builder

Thank you for the feedback, Bent. I will make some adjustments as a result.

@Bent
Do you attach your siderails to the end plates? Looking at some of your photographs it looks like you do. In particular I'm referring to this photo:
download/file.php?id=1153

I'm wondering how you manage to drill and countersink the holes through the end plates given it would have to be done from the inside out. Are you just doing it with a hand drill? I can't see how one would do it with a drill press, and not sure I'd be accurate enough with a hand drill.

Thanks.

Do a search for "reverse countersinks".....they're the answer for you. A bit fiddly to use, but they work great!

I had a look at those, Ross, but it looks like the hole would have to be drilled from the outside. Bent's end plates have no visible hardware on the outside, which is the look I'm striving to achieve. So he must be drilling from the inside somehow.

sho nuff, I apparently didn't read you post or look at Bent's plates closely enough. On the end plates I've made the visible flange is either nonexistent or shorter than the inside flange. You can see this a bit in one of the pics here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1098

Ahhh. So it looks like the endplates only cover maybe an inch or so of the aprons on your guitar. That would be an easy solution - just shorten the sides to expose the inside mounting flanges. There is no need for countersinking. I like it. Not sure why that didn't occur to me.

Thanks.

This is what I've pretty much settled on. Was thinking of moving the jack to the bottom flange to clean up the end. So the cable would plug in from below. Good idea? Bad idea?

Material is 2"x4"x10" 6061 al

sleepingdog wrote:@Bent
Do you attach your siderails to the end plates? Looking at some of your photographs it looks like you do. In particular I'm referring to this photo:
download/file.php?id=1153

I'm wondering how you manage to drill and countersink the holes through the end plates given it would have to be done from the inside out. Are you just doing it with a hand drill? I can't see how one would do it with a drill press, and not sure I'd be accurate enough with a hand drill.

Thanks.

I use one of those angle attachments that you chuck into a drill. It has a hex drive in it so I have a supply of drill bits that I have shortened so the fit in the changer window. I then drill through the endplate wraps with a small drill bit (the smaller the better for accuracy) With the inside rails and end plates mounted, squared and clamped tight I drill a shallow dimple thru the endplate hole and into the rail. Then I dismantle everything and clamp the rails in the drill press vise. Then, using a centerpoint, I line up the point with the dimple(here's where the small dimple comes in handy.then I drill and tap the hole on the same setting so that drill and tap are exactly the same location. Then I drill out the end plate holes and use a counter sink in the angle attachment. I use 10-32 screws.