I enlarged a couple of bridge holes on my old Larry Brown, which was apparently drilled for relatively thin wound basses and couldn't accommodate larger gut strings. I used what's called a pin vise to hold the drill (standard item in machine shops), with some tape on the top to protect it from the vise. Then just gently spin the pin vise with your fingers to drill out the hole. The main trick is finding a vice that's skinny enough to handle the spacing between hole and top.
Here's one example of a pin vise: https://www.amazon.com/Starrett-162A-Vise-0-0-040-Range/dp/B06Y5SG9LD/ref=sr_1_6?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1530300625&sr=1-6&keywords=pin+vise Guy -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Matthew Daillie Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 11:50 AM To: lutelist Net Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lubricating string ends/bridge holes? Hi Howard, Even in relatively dry climates gut somehow manages to absorb humidity and swell over time. Personally I would try to avoid lubricating the strings. Have you tried cutting the end at an angle to slip it through? You could probably also gently sand the last 5 mm or so of the end of the string with some very fine emery paper without the risk of fraying or weakening. Enlarging the bridge holes can be very straight forward with the appropriate tools (I can send you a photo of the tools I use if you're interested). Best, Matthew On 29/06/2018 19:14, howard posner wrote: > I reconfigure the stringing on my archlute from time to time, which involves > moving some extension strings so that, e.g. the 8th course becomes the 12th > for one stringing B, then gets moved back for stringing A. > > I now find that couple of gut extension strings won’t fit through bridge > holes that they always fit through before. I tried blow-drying the string > ends, on the assumption that they had swelled with humidity (not a sound > assumption where I live), without success. > > So now, if I don’t want to string the whole instrument lighter, it seems I > have two options: > widening the bridge holes or lubricating the string ends. I’d like to try > lubricating first. > > Does anyone have experience with string lube jobs? What do you use? > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http:%2F%2Fwww.cs.dartmouth.edu%2F~wbc%2Flute-admin%2Findex.html&data=02%7C01%7C%7C1c0cd246441345bb1e8408d5ddf13779%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636658950444650467&sdata=kNJclNqJmJgDeC5C5VeNawW0K5F7LzF%2FTJcgosQSnHQ%3D&reserved=0 > > --- > Cet email a fait l'objet d'une analyse antivirus par AVG. > https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avg.com&data=02%7C01%7C%7C1c0cd246441345bb1e8408d5ddf13779%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636658950444650467&sdata=PGsIilT0PmX6gfDMlgC0gUGdDH9ZVMB4X44c4eNop4g%3D&reserved=0 > >
