Fret dot markers how-to

  

 

  
         

A friend of mine who makes guitars gave me this info on how to make inexpensive fret markers using a violin tuning peg.

Below are some notes on how I did it.

Stew Mac sells one peg for $3. And with one or two, you can make enough markers for an entire guitar.

Tuning pegs are tapered, so you need to shave them down to be a cylinder.
First off you need to make a tuning peg pencil sharpener jig. I took some scrap wood and made this one.

Take the blade from a wood plane and slide it down into the slot .

The blade is held firmly, but not so tight that you cant press it down
vertically with some force.

    
       
     
       
     
       
   

Turn, turn, turn

Put the blade in the top slot and the peg into the hole, press down on the blade and turn the peg. You will have to turn the peg 389 times (or so) to get the diameter correct. And you will get a blister on your thumb.

  
         
     
         
  Use a drill bit gauge to test as you go to get the right diameter of the peg.   Drill a test hole and make sure for a tight fit.  
         
  For the face of the neck dots, I took the peg down to 1/4 inch in diameter. I drilled shallow 1/4 inch holes on the fret board. And because the wood is a bit delicate I would glue it in place and then cut it off. Rather than slicing the peg into discs and then gluing them in place. I had too much tear out with that method. For the side markers I took the diameter down to 1/8th inch. But for those I just whittled the peg down and used sand paper to get the right diameter.      
       
   
       
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