TWANG Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 I finally got to the lp again.. removing those pesky bushings. I used another piece of hardwood inside the hole.. and got myself an 18" long, big handled, 1/2" shaft screwdriver.. think about the amount of torque.. both hands.. and it still took me three tries. Man was that thing in there. Went to the other side.. added some more dowel.. same deal.. that one had a screw also in the hole.. and when I pulled it out the bottom of the bushing had cracked in three places so here's the deal on using a screw instead of a wooden dowel.. the dowel wouldn't have cracked it. Probably, if they weren't as tight as these two, a screw would have worked find.. head down, of course. fortunatley I can still use it.. it's just cosmetic. But boy was that frightening process. Got the bigsby taped on.... lined up.. gonna take this break and then go back and use some kite string to line it up. about the roller bridge I have.. the neat thing is those rollers let you really line up your strings with the neck and pole pieces.. going to have much better alignment now. the hassle is the bushings are smaller.. so I'll have to dowel it and redrill.. the top part just fits inside the hole. So.. I may use a nice chrome washer underneath.. I think I can get that to work because the very top part of the new bushing is half the thickness of the old one. which means I wont have the bridge setting too high IF it needs to be all the way down on either side. I'll just ream that washer to fit the bushing, and maybe use a bit of glue to keep it straight.. the string pressure will do it after that. Looks fantastic! Bridge fits perfectly otherwise.. bigsby is nicely fit to the top.. should be great. pics along the way. recharging batterys while I'm messing about in here. I could do this on the korean sheri in about twenty minutes, entire process.. those bushings aren't so insanely tight. Scariest job I ever did. TWANG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 I finally got to the lp again.. removing those pesky bushings. I used another piece of hardwood inside the hole.. and got myself an 18" long' date=' big handled, 1/2" shaft screwdriver.. think about the amount of torque.. both hands.. and it still took me three tries. [/quote'] I don't understand why it's necessary to use a dowel; Twang. I prefer to use a threaded hex head bolt, (either metric thread for the EPIs, or imperial sizes for Gibsons. Just screw it in, and when the bolt bottoms out in the hole, turning it some more will start to lift the threaded bushings out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWANG Posted November 8, 2008 Author Share Posted November 8, 2008 I used dowel and screws. I prefer the hardwood dowel of all three though. I didn't just happen to have the correct size hex head bolt laying around. I don't think it matters all that much, anything in the bottom of that hole will do it. But as I think about it, the bolt you put in would have to pass all the way through otherwise you'd be just pushing against the bushing which wouldn't do anything. Since the hole is deeper than the bushing you'd have to have a bolt that was just the right height, what.. 1/4" long? With a dowel, since it has no threads-it never grips the bushing, you can use any length you want so long as you leave enough thread on the bushing to start your bolt. Anyway, it pushed out, which is what I wanted. I'm still freaked out about how hard it was to do on the bridge bolts. Sure looks good though even taped on. TWANG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 Since the hole is deeper than the bushing you'd have to have a bolt that was just the right height' date=' what.. 1/4" long? [/quote'] I used a M8 x 45mm L. for the the stop. (about 1 3/4" long. For the t-o-m bushings, I used a M6 x 40mm L. (about 1 5/8") long. Just screw in the long bolt into the bushing and use a hex socket and 1/4 inch ratchet. The bolt threads through the bushing all the way down to the bottom. When the bottom of the bolt reaches the wood, further tightening will force the bolt to exert EVEN pressure on the bushing and the bushing will start to come out slowly as you continue turning the bolt. Of course Stew-Mac advertise a "knob/bushing puller" #3515 for $40.. ...but I find that the metric bolts work quite nicely and are only less than a dollar for the two sizes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWANG Posted November 8, 2008 Author Share Posted November 8, 2008 d'oh! I get it. I was still thinking about having to lengthen using the stock bolt to push on something. hey. I was just having coffee when I read that *L* But I get it. just use a different bolt, longer. sure. that would work fine! yep. I'll remember that, thanks. and cheap too.. I dig that. TWANG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.