What drill size do you need for drilling new pot hole

[jh45gun]

Any one know off the top of their heads? The vol knob on my Customized Peavey Strat style guiitar (Not done by me) has the vol pot set up right below the bridge Pick Up I need to move it. What size drill bit do I need to drill a new hole.

 

[copperheadroad]

cts pots need a 3/8" hole i believe & import pots like Alpha pots have smaller shafts need a 1/4" hole

 

[jefrs]

All pots are metric and require either a 8mm or 10mm hole thro'

They're metric because they're all made on the other side of the world, and the rest of the world went metric over 50 years ago.

 

[copperheadroad]

Don't get me started on the Metric & SAE unit
Here in Canada we are always battling with it

 

[Rhomco]

Please dont

Try to drill it full size in one shot. Awful things can happen to innocent guitars this way. Drill it 1/4 inch and use a tapered reamer to bring it up to the diameter you want. No chipping, splitting, ripping, tearing, cracking or spinning on the workbench!
Good luck on your project,
Rob

 

[jh45gun]

Thanks

 

[Teleterr]

They have cards w standard size holes at the hardware store next to the bits.Very handy. I keep it w my bits. If I'm putting in a new part, the card tells which bit to use.

 

[jh45gun]

That would be great if the pot was not already wired up.

 

[jefrs]

They have cards w standard size holes at the hardware store next to the bits.Very handy. I keep it w my bits. If I'm putting in a new part, the card tells which bit to use.

I used a proper engineer's one to arrive at the 8mm for Alpha and the 10mm for CTS above.

How you drill depends what you are drilling.

If you are drilling the usual strat pickguard then I would be inclined to go through in one go using a wood bit after carefully measuring and marking the centre with an awl as a starter (think centre-pop). Slow speed for plastic or it melts - use a wheel brace.

Drilling a 6mm hole and then widening it with a larger drill or a tapered reamer tend to run off-centre, but making a 2mm pilot hole in in thicker material is effective.

A wood bit usually has a knife edge and a centre spear to make a clean cut, whereas a straight HSS "jobber" doesn't and can tear the edge (needs sharpening then, do we still sharpen drills?). Both will wander if presented with a large diameter pilot. Slow speed, ideally drill-press but hand held electric drill or better, a manual wheel-brace, are effective on thin material.

 

[jh45gun]

Well I did not use a drill at all. I took my Dremel and put in a round ball burr bit to put a small hole through the plastic then took a pointed tapered stone and enlarged it till the pot just fit. Worked perfect.

 

[jefrs]

Well I did not use a drill at all. I took my Dremel and put in a round ball burr bit to put a small hole through the plastic then took a pointed tapered stone and enlarged it till the pot just fit. Worked perfect.

I always get a nice oval doing that.

Drills work, they're designed to make round holes.

 

[jh45gun]

Well this hole is round the pickgard is not like drilling through some thing hard it went really easy. If your getting oval holes your not holding the tool straight. Plus I took it slow and easy. In fact the hole I took the pot out of is slightly oval which I suspect was drilled. Same thing who ever did it probably used a hand drill and did not have it straight. I agree the right drill works and is designed for holes, I dd not have the right size so this worked well taking the advice of starting small and making it to size.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

Any one know off the top of their heads? The vol knob on my Customized Peavey Strat style guiitar (Not done by me) has the vol pot set up right below the bridge Pick Up I need to move it. What size drill bit do I need to drill a new hole.

what's yer question got to do with pickups?

 

[jh45gun]

What are pick ups wired to? POTS Figured this would be the best place to ask since it is PU related.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

What are pick ups wired to? POTS Figured this would be the best place to ask since it is PU related.

you just don't get it, do you? this forum is about pickups, transducers and their ilk. pickups don't need pots to function, they're ancillary. you wanna talk pots, go to tele tech forum.

 

[jh45gun]

I get it enough I would never buy any crap from you nor take any either!

 

[jefrs]

you just don't get it, do you? this forum is about pickups, transducers and their ilk. pickups don't need pots to function, they're ancillary. you wanna talk pots, go to tele tech forum.

Pickups require a vol pot to provide the load match and form the LR circuit.

So pickups do need a pot to function.

Traditionally the control circuit has been mainly discussed in the pickups section. If you are going to fit a pickup you will need to wire it up. The tele-tech section is a mysterious grey miscellaneous area where things like fret-buzz and nuts are discussed, sometimes pickups and controls slip into there too...

 

[Rob DiStefano]

... So pickups do need a pot to function....

of course they don't - a pup can run straight to an amp and be quite happy. the "electronics" that route pups are an entirely diff'rent subject.

this thread is in the wrong forum and will not protray the topic starter in a good, smart, intelligent light. but, really, i could care less ... silly is as silly does.

 

[jefrs]

Ok, try this for logic.

A Barden T-Style is a decent pickup, yes?

But if you try running it straight out to the amp it will sound plain nasty. It requires a 250k load. You would need to provide that load within the guitar even if you had a straight-out hot-rod jack.

There is no section on this forum dedicated to pickup control electronics alone. You have a choice of here in pickups, which I consider to be the most logical being directly pickup related, or the tele-tech which is a miscellany of odds and sods mostly involving sawdust.

What does it really matter?

 

[Rob DiStefano]

a "pickup" is a transducer capable of inducing a signal.

a pot, by itself, cannot reproduce a string's vibration.

only a pickup/transducer can - without help from any other part save a jack, perhaps.

yer comparing apples to oranges, and this is a pickup forum, not a pot or circuit forum.

and yer wasting everyone's time and tdpri bandwidth.

beam me up scotty ..........