The Bridge

What a pain in the neck this is!  Well, part of it.  For starters, I positioned the soundboard under the blueprint, and made little cuts in the paper at the four corners so I could line everything up properly.  I then positioned the bridge on top of the blueprint as accurately as possible and drilled five holes with my #57 drill bit in my Dremel.  I drilled through the bridge, the blueprint, and the soundboard clear through to my work surface, taking care to avoid places where the future bridge pin holes would be drilled.  I managed to do well with two of them.  Three of them are pretty close to where bridge pins would go, so they will get filled later and then drilled to accommodate the bridge pins.  I drove five 3/4x18 nails through the holes. This would allow me to reposition the bridge in the exact same place, sans blueprint, later on.  I then took it all apart and, after placing a layer of Scotch tape across the blueprint where the bridge is drawn, placed the blueprint on top of the bridge and used the nail holes to hold the paper down.  My husband and I smoothed the drawing down, creasing it along the sides of the bridge.  Making a little tap with a nail, I marked the 56 places where I would drill holes for the bridge pins. This is the part of the task that's a pain.  The marks on the blueprint are small, the paper is large and cumbersome and not three dimensional like the bridge, and the area being marked is very narrow.  Tedious is a word that comes to mind.  After that was done, we rigged up the Dremel's drill press so I could drill 56 perfectly straight holes into the bridge at the precise depth needed.  I was doubly careful and also marked the bit with a little strip of masking tape. 

 

Yeah, overkill.  But I don't like to leave anything to chance.  When that was done I called it a day.