I'm fixing a hole

Insert inappropriate comment here.

I took a break from working on the binding...
Things were not going well -- and it was probably a good idea to focus on something else for a while.  So, I thought I'd dig some holes!

Because I changed the headstock to look more like a classic Les Paul shape the holes for the tuning pegs were now a little too close to the edge.  Also - they just didn't look quite right - which is almost as important.  Therefore I need to move the holes.  In order to do that - I have to fill the existing ones.  In my search for dowels to fill said holes I found some poplar dowels that were very close to the color of the maple neck and as a plus they had similar grain patterns - so I thought it might be easier to blend them into the headstock.  The one issue is that the dowel was about a 16th of an inch bigger than the existing holes.  So those holes needed to be reamed.
Hence the drill press above.

It's a good thing precision isn't a requirement in luthiery.
Wait.  What?

I then cut six plugs from the dowel and cleaned up the rough edges.  The plugs fit the holes pretty snug but once they were glued up I hoped they would be near seamless.

Drilled.  Reamed.  Plugged.
It's amazing how powerful context is...

...let's just say it's a good thing that I'm putting a laminate over one side of the headstock.

The right tool but not for this job.

The next time I have to do this - I'll use Q-tips to spread the glue.  The glue brush worked but:

1. You really have to cram it in the hole to spread the glue evenly
2. The glue dried up before I could clean it off - and now the brush is in the trash.  Which is a waste.

Spread, pounded, and hammered...
What kinda blog you writing again?

Once you have spread the glue and tapped the dowels into the holes it's time to wait until the glue dries.

A couple things:

Because the dowels were all different lengths and the headstock was also not uniformly thick I ended up with a bit of overhand on five of the plugs and a gap on number six.  What to do?

For ease of use I made sure that the overhang was on the back of the headstock - so that all of the plugs were flush on the front face.  This should make it easier to prep for the veneer/lamination I'm going to glue to the front of the headstock.  I shouldn't have to do much sanding/scraping/cutting to get that face flat and ready for glue.  There wasn't a lot of overhang on the back - one of the plugs had to be shaved a bit with a chisel but otherwise the rest should sand flat pretty easily.

I tapped that

The gap...

One of the plugs wasn't long enough and there was an 1/8 of an inch gap between the front of the headstock and the top of the dowel.  Because I'm gluing a veneer/laminate top to the headstock - I probably could have gotten away with just filling it with glue and calling it a day - no one would ever see it.  But I didn't want to do that.  So I glued in another plug to fill the gap - with the understanding that I'd have to saw it off with the flush trim saw.  I did try to pound the plug out and start over - but the fit was tight enough (and the dowel had swelled enough) that it wouldn't budge.  So, I know the hole is well filled - but you know - more work!

Next time I might use longer plugs (or just measure them more precisely).

Nice trim!
...yeah, the joke gets a bit old after a while...

Once the glue was dry (or so I thought) I cut off the extra dowel and this is where we are:

Just as an FYI - in a perfect world they'd all look like the top left one.

It turns out - the glue wasn't fully dry.  Because of that the dowel didn't come out clean - it chipped.

Chip off the old...
...dowel?  That doesn't make any sense.

After a mild application of sawdust and glue - we are left with this:

At the end of the day - this doesn't have to be perfect.  It's going to be covered.

The back of the headstock however won't be completely covered - so I kind of have to get that one right.  I made the decision to wait to work on the back of the headstock another night. 

Some thoughts in the back of my head: 

Headstock thickness. Once the veneer is glued in place the headstock is going to be thicker than it was before.  I've been pretty good about sanding the veneer and the headstock down to minimize this effect but there is the real possibility that the tuning pegs won't be long enough.

End grain:  Poplar and maple are very different kinds of woods.  Maple is three times as hard as poplar) Add to that their different grain orientations in the above example - and things could get interesting down the line.  In the above pictures you are looking at the face grain of the maple and the end grain of the poplar plug.   End grain reacts different than face grain when it comes to drilling and staining/finishing.  End grain will usually split easier than face grain (think about how you chop wood) but end grain will also suck up stain better than face grain.  So, what I'm saying is that I need to be careful when I redrill the holes and I need to think about the best way to color/stain this headstock when the time comes.

Much to think on, I will.