Drilling the Wiring Channel

Drilling the wiring channel is a scary, scary event.  I've seen the the bit pop out of the back of the guitar body, irrevocably ruining a nice piece of wood.

Check out this rig...using a drill guide from Woodcraft.com, I rigged a pretty good solution.  the guide is a plastic case that holds bearings corresponding to the diameter of particular drill bits.  For this example I used the 1/4" bearing.

 

I clamped the body to the workbench, and determined the "track" that the long bit had to take to drill the wiring channel using a piece of fishing line.  This included the total depth required.  Once marked, I aligned the drill guide using scraps of wood and clamps.  I drilled a pilot hole with a regular brad-point 1/4" drill bit, and continued to check how level the drill guide and table were with "bubble levels" from Sears.  Once the pilot hole was ready, I switched to the long drill bit and started drilling.

I lubricated the drill bits with some beeswax, and they seemed to do fine.