I had very bad tear-out from drilling tuner holes on my #1, and I want to prevent a repeat performance with the mandos I'm at that stage with now. I thought I did things correctly- since it was a kit that had tuner holes already drilled through the headstock, I clamped it face down onto a board, and drilled from the back, starting with my smallest drill bit and going up to the final one, without skipping any inbetween. Since I had it clamped well, I didn't stop to check for tearout inbetween bits. The only thing I could think of is that the board I clamped it to was spruce, and that it was too soft to prevent tearout, but that doesn't really make sense to me. The 3 mandos I'm getting ready to drill now are all kits as well, with the tuner holes already drilled in the headstock but not the overlay. I thought about cutting out a piece of hardwood close to the headstock shape and clamping them to that, do you think that would help? I can't think of anything that I've left out, other than the drill I'm using is a 15 volt cordless (don't have a drill press yet). Thanks.
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