Installing side dots on a finished neck

[matthew bryan]

Hello all,

The last build I did....quite a while ago....does not have sided dots on the neck.  I built it to only have fretboard markers on the face of the fretboard......and these were installed offset to be on the left side of the fretboard (if you are looking straight on the fretboard).  This was done to both have a different visual feel and to be able to see them as they are closer to the side and I did not think I needed the side ones as this was a duplication of work.  

However.....I was wrong.  I did not put a belly cut into the body and therefore it does not "rotate" up towards me showing the fretboard markers at all. So I was going to install some side dots.  The neck is a truoil finish and I was wondering if taping off, marking , drilling, and filing down with a file vs sandpaper would work as I do not want to mess up the finish.  

Any tips would be appreciated as I dont want to refinish the entire neck if it can be avoided.

[Bizman62]

1 hour ago, matthew bryan said:

The neck is a truoil finish

That makes the whole thing a piece of cake! Oil finishes are very easy to patch, new oil will blend into old. So you can polish the dots with sandpaper after filing them flush and then just wipe on some more truoil.

[ScottR]

8 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That makes the whole thing a piece of cake! Oil finishes are very easy to patch, new oil will blend into old. So you can polish the dots with sandpaper after filing them flush and then just wipe on some more truoil.

Yep. Biz beat me to it by only seconds.

Also, if you are using the plastic side markers you might be able to pull off slicing them flush with a razor and avoid marring the finish in the first place.

SR

[Roland]

Coincidentally I’ve just done this today with Lumilay, which is harder to cut than ordinary dots. On an oil finish there’s little risk of damaging the neck. Drill, drop of CA glue, push in the plastic rod, slice off with a craft knife. If it won’t slice cleanly, which Lumilay often doesn’t, then I use a very fine metal file to level the end. The teeth are so fine that sanding isn’t necessary. You can tell from the feel and sound as soon as the end is flush and the file touches the finish. If you manage to scratch the finish then use wipe it over with drop of Tru-Oil.