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Mounting Waverly tuners

Tried to post before but not too bright here.

On second build and find that using Waverly`s in the pre drilled holes in the head stock will not seat properly. Filled holes with 5/16 Birch dowel, drilled 3/16 holes for tuners, used 60 and 100 countersinks. Found the Birch in end grain seemed too hard for the tuners to seat well. Seemed a softer wood that would allow for some smushing (Luthier`s term I`m sure) to seat and get a better feel might be better.

Any suggestions? I thought to use Mahogany plugs in cross grain since many Uke necks are made of Mahogany.

Help and thanks. Really getting a lot from this site.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 5, 2014 at 12:26pm

What do you mean, precisely, that they won't seat properly? Did you use the bushings that are designed to help center and stabilize the shaft?

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Permalink Reply by grondon oconnor on August 5, 2014 at 8:40pm

Yeah used the proper bushings etc. The tuners seated well but wouldn`t hold without tightening the screws to the point of barely able to turn them. That`s why I am thinking perhaps end grain Birch may be too hard and maybe a bit softer plug would work better. As it stands I will make plugs of different woods, drill, counter sink and test to see what works best.

Just thought not to reinvent the wheel figuring there is so much experience available here that might have encountered same.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 5, 2014 at 11:12pm

Did you pre drill the holes for the two attachment screws? Or will the tuning shaft not turn because the screw holding the gear is cranked down too tight?

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Permalink Reply by ReturnToSender on August 6, 2014 at 1:03am

Type or hardness of wood should have no impact on a tuner peg. Pics would help, but make sure you install them so that the strings are pulling the shaft gear into the worm gear... basically, you want the star looking gear towards the nut. Otherwise, I suppose it's possible that the string tension will pull the shaft gear away from the worm gear and strip it... eventually.

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Permalink Reply by Biscuit on August 6, 2014 at 4:55pm

Uh oh... How important is this gear shaft wrong way 'round thing?

I'm part way through my first build, and in an effort to get a straight pull on the strings through the nut, my plan ended up with an odd mix of left/right tuners, with the 2nd one gear-away-from nut. The only consistent thing is, I think, they all wind "backwards"..

Do I need to rework it? (The drawing is x-ray view from front.)

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on August 6, 2014 at 5:52pm

the " gear shaft wrong way thing " is mainly only a concern on cheap open end tuners , as the string tension will pull the shaft away from the cog over time . making it skip .

most enclosed turners don't have this problem . you are probably fine as is if they are new enclosed tuners and half descent quality .

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Permalink Reply by Biscuit on August 6, 2014 at 6:27pm

Yes I'm using new enclosed tuners, so that puts my mind at ease. I'll leave things as they are for this build, but it's good to know the reason behind the traditional orientation. Thanks anonymous.

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on August 6, 2014 at 6:08pm

and i said .. this is not a problem on most enclosed tuners . cheapos .. yes . fender vintage repo stripe covers yes they are a problem .

the new enclosed china / japan ones are fine . even after 20000 restrings .

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on August 6, 2014 at 7:42pm

sorry , that sounded rude of me .. meant to say "as i said " ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 7, 2014 at 12:14am

Biscuit and Gary,

Interestingly enough, and because the engineer in me won't let well enough alone ;-), if you simply reverse the outer left and right tuners in your diagram, you can get all the gears pointed the right way. Just means you have to re drill the holes for the anchor screws. They will still work as you have them, but why not flip for optimum mechanical design advantage and less stress? Easy fix.