Drilling advice

[Yeroc]

Anyone know any tricks for drilling new control holes in a guitar without damaging an existing finish?

[mishmannah]

I use the same technique I use when drilling into ceramic tiles...a piece of masking tape over the area you want to drill, mark the spot with a pencil, and go slow. Switch the drill to reverse drive when coming out of the newly-drilled hole...remove tape and Bob's yer uncle. :)

[martinedwards]

Spot on Mish. the oly addition would be to start with a small drill bit and then step up a few mm at a time.

a drill stand helps a lot too

[entityof1]

of course use new or extremely sharp drill bits, and i believe it would probably be better if you used maybe a drill press?

[Vezinapotomis]

/\/\a drill press will be waay better. The increase in control you get is amazing. since a guitar is such a smooth finish, I would imagine that a hand drill would have a tendency to "walk" all over the surface, though i do not speak from experience so maybe not. The changing bits idea is pretty much a must too, changing sizes several times is probably ideal.

[Yeroc]

Awesome advice as usual guys, thanks a bunch. The holes came out perfectly.

[entityof1]

Guud!