Counterbore / Spotfacer for nut access cut

For doing a vintage correct Les Paul neck you have to think about how to do the truss rod nut access cut. This can be a bit tricky to do as the headstock is tilt by 17 degree and using a regular drill will not work due to several reasons. Some use a Forstner drill bit of right diameter, but using such leaks of a pilot for supporting a clean cut.

According the experience from our friends at Savantguitars best for this special job is using a Counterbore / Spotfacer.
They came up with a custom made spotfacer/cutting head that has several advantages compared to regulary available ones:

- 4-blades HSS steel cutting head, easy to re-sharp

- the end of the cutting head got a recess for minimizing friction (see detail pic)

- head can be placed at any position of a steel rod, secured in position by an allen
  screw: regular counterbores have a quite short shank, so - depending on the
  geometry of your tool - the chunk of your drill press may touch the wood before
  you have finished the job. Here you are on the save side, you can set up the
  system according your chuck for drilling without touching the wood when you
  reach the end of the cut.

- as a pilot you can use a any long steel rod of the same dia. as the truss rod
  (3/16´´ = 4.76mm) to fit perfectly into the truss rod chanel. This long pilot
  gives you best controll (or use a truss rod in case you are building from scratch
  without pre-installed anchor nut). Please note that the 3/16 steel rod is not
  included with this set: here in Germany we can get only metric rods, importing
  such would lift the price up by approx. 10 Euro/rod! Check locally for imperial
  sized steel rods (or use a metric one with slightly less diameter, i.e. 4,5mm).

- inner dia. of the cutting head is 6.2mm (approx. 1/4´´), for a tight fit of the
  thinner pilot (3/16-truss rod) the set comes with a brass tube for egalizing the
  difference. All locked by an allen screw, set includes allen wrench.

- vintage correct cutting removes at this highly critical point much more wood than
  needed for a comfortable access to the nut (remember the numerous guitars
  that ended with a headbreak at exactly this position).
  For vintage LPs a 3/4´´ (19mm) spotfacer was used that forked out much
  material... Last pic shows how thin this critical part is when Gibson is doing this,
  this shows NOT the result from using our set!
  Here you can find what Mr. Les Paul himself thinks about the "generous"
  Gibson-cut: Les Paul thoughts

  The diameter of this custom cutting head has been reduced by 1mm (0.04) for
  better stability at the weakest point: do not remove more wood here 
  than needed.

No more guesswork with running-off drills: just set up the system and place the pilot into your truss rod channel, then hold or clamp it snugly in place with a piece of scrap and just drill. Done.