< Work Day 35 Work Day 37>
Work Day # 36 - March 7, 2009 (3.5 hrs)
After we did the final polish, there were 3-4 spots on the back that for some reason went "dry". It looks like we sanded through the lacquer down to the wood...and those spots turned white. We first tried building up the lacquer in those spots, but as soon as we sanded again, the same thing happened again. So we took some 600 and sanded the entire back and opened up those trouble spots.
Then we put a spot of shellac on the dry spots and a few coats of lacquer. Then we put on 4 new coats of lacquer on the entire back.
In between coats we installed the tuners. First we took the 10mm drill and cleaned out the dried lacquer from the holes and test fit the tuners. When drilling, have the drill spinning in reverse. We needed to work a bit on the right side tuners to get them to slide in easily. We used the drill and round files to get the clearance we were looking for. Once we were satisfied with the fit, we slid them in and marked the screw holes with a punch then drilled them w/ a 1/16" drill. The drill bit is marked with a piece of masking tape so we don't drill through the side of the head.
Before we screw them down, we take them out and put a little bit of lubricant in the holes. Vaseline works well. We used a mixture dad had from the piano tuning days (vaseline, lanolin, and baby powder...I think).