doweling volume pot holes

calebbarton · #1 07-21-2010, 05:44 PM

How would you guys go about doweling a volume pot hole and then matching the existing finish? Like say for instance that I want to move the volume pot to another location inside the bass and plug the old hole.....Any ideas?

JLS · #2 07-21-2010, 06:37 PM

Good luck...

Jimbob Jones · #3 07-21-2010, 06:42 PM

It would be very tricky to get right. what finish are you trying to match to?

calebbarton · #4 07-21-2010, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbob Jones

It would be very tricky to get right. what finish are you trying to match to?

solid color like red. i dont want to spray paint on more space than i need to, i just wanted to know if you guys had any thoughts on how to refinish the patch. do i sand away a small area near the patch or do i just spray paint on the patch and then do a light brushing of top coat on that.

JLS · #5 07-22-2010, 11:36 AM

You are never going to be happy with the results. Trust me.

Jimbob Jones · #6 07-22-2010, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLS

You are never going to be happy with the results. Trust me.

+1

finishing is probably the most difficult thing to get right on a repair job, most people just leave the blemishes and chalk it up to 'mojo'. Why do you need to move the pot?

darkstorm · #7 07-24-2010, 09:26 PM

I woulodnt try7 to dowl a pot hole in body. The woods rather thin there. Instead I'd use something to block the hole from inside the control cavity. Even heavy duty tape. or thin wood patch glued there from inside control cavity. Then fill the hole with wood filler. Let dry. Fine sand so its even with rest of surface. Then match paint for finish.

**SamanthaCay** · #8 07-24-2010, 10:16 PM

Any kind of opaque color is gonna be tough to match. If it where me and it absolutely had to be done, I would start as darkstorm mentioned only use something a bit harder like epoxy or bondo. Then I would take a razor blade and turn the edge on it so that it becomes an efficient scraper and put some masking tape on either side of the blades edges so that I am only scraping over the filled hole. Once I have it scraped down, I would very lightly sand the filled area with something like 400 grit until the fill is just slightly lower then the finish around it. Then once that’s done I would experiment with some different reds on a piece of scrap until I had it right. Next I would do what’s called a drop fill where by I would drop small amounts of the red onto the spot, sand, drop sand until it looks good. Then drop fill it with clear, sand, drop, sand until it’s done, buff it and forget it ever happen. I would also like to mention that this process is nothing fun and will likely take a long time to perfect. Where as a total refinish would be a much easier approach if at all possible. I would only attempt this for example on a very expensive vintage instrument that had been damaged. Oh and also this thread needs pic’s.

**joinercape** · #9 07-25-2010, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLS

You are never going to be happy with the results. Trust me.

This is basically the truth....but under paint it can work. You do not use dowels, as dowels show end grain. You would use a bung, made with a plug cutter from face grain, of the same material. If the pot hole has been reamed to clean it up after drilling, it may be an odd size, so you would ream or drill it to the next available plug cutter size. It takes reasonable skill to do it well but even a beginner should be able to do if they were to go slow, especially the sanding down process. Best bet....take it to a qualified luthier, who will do it quickly and cleanly.