I am restoring a stewert, American princess banjo, and have a question about the end bolt that comes out of the dowel and screws into the tail anchor shoe. The picture below has the end bolt the banjo arrived with on the right, which looks like a machine bolt with a nut, and a replacement end bolt on the left, which has a wood screw attached to a standard tail anchor shoe. The hole in the end of the dowel has no threads for the bolt to attach to. I also don't have a bridge anchor shoe that will fit on the bolt the banjo came with. I'm wondering what the most appropriate way to set the end bolt up would be. I could epoxy the machine bolt into the end of the dowel, or I could plug the dowel and use the wood screw with the tail anchor shoe on it on the left in the picture. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you.
David
Edited by - dpgetman on 06/04/2023 16:16:21
Not sure why the gig bag pic is in there but I can’t seem to get rid of it…
Plug the dowel and use the lag screw end bolt.
Option 2 is better:
"Plug the dowel stick and use the wood screw with the tall anchor . . ."
. . . which is an original Stewart style end bolt.
I did a similar repair some time back.
My plug was a piece of dowel the size of the hole, which I clamped to a work board and filed to a half moon shape. Then I cut the center out of it with X-acto's small round rasp until the plug was the shape of the new moon.
I installed it with just a little bit of glue, let it dry, then chased what was left of the hole with a drill bit the size of the inner shaft of the screw.
A nail or plastic straw with some Scotch magic tape wrapped around it can be used to hold the plug in place until the glue sets.
Some folks would just use a few toothpicks. That would be a lot easier. I did it the hard way to make a more durable repair if the endbolt needed to be removed again later. Either way would be ok. My way requires a bit more experience, more care, and the right tools.
What you don't want to do is install a full thickness plug, because redrilling the hole accurately would be difficult and risky.
Edited by - rcc56 on 06/04/2023 17:11:24
The square brass nut is factory orignial and will fit into a mortise cut into the inside side of the end bolt hole. It has been awhile since I took one apart but I would not be surprised is the bolt on the right is factory correct (with an end pin screwed on such as the one on the left).
Whatever you do, consider that the neck should be set flat with no back angle-- the fingerboard should be level and inline with the head. Avoid the urge to use this as opportunity to add back angle to the neck as you will find that when set up properly (with a 1/2" bridge") you will get buzzing if you ever try to play with any right hand confidence.
Thanks for the replies blazo rcc56 and Joel Hooks I wish I had a tail anchor to screw onto the original bolt, let’s say I could find one, should the machine bolt be fixed on into the dowel?
You could, but you would have to tap it first. That's not a problem if the machine bolt has a thread that's a common size. But sometimes we see odd thread sizes on old bolts that aren't used anymore. In that case, it would be easier to use the bolt with the wood screw thread-- it will be self-tapping as long as you get your hole size right.
The complete end bolt looks "correct" enough, and if I recall correctly, I have seen these used on other Stewart banjos, although I cannot say for sure whether or not they were factory original. The bottom line for me is that while I might knock myself out to try to find an "absolutely factory correct" part for a presentation-grade Fairbanks or 1932 Granada, I'm not going to worry that much over an American Princess as long as a replacement part looks good and does its job.
quote:
Originally posted by Joel HooksThe square brass nut is factory orignial and will fit into a mortise cut into the inside side of the end bolt hole. It has been awhile since I took one apart but I would not be surprised is the bolt on the right is factory correct (with an end pin screwed on such as the one on the left).
Whatever you do, consider that the neck should be set flat with no back angle-- the fingerboard should be level and inline with the head. Avoid the urge to use this as opportunity to add back angle to the neck as you will find that when set up properly (with a 1/2" bridge") you will get buzzing if you ever try to play with any right hand confidence.
Agreed about the neck angle. About the nut, is there an advantage to drilling it out and sticking it on the woodscrew with the end tail anchor when I instal it?
quote:
Originally posted by rcc56You could, but you would have to tap it first. That's not a problem if the machine bolt has a thread that's a common size. But sometimes we see odd thread sizes on old bolts that aren't used anymore. In that case, it would be easier to use the bolt with the wood screw thread-- it will be self-tapping as long as you get your hole size right.
The complete end bolt looks "correct" enough, and if I recall correctly, I have seen these used on other Stewart banjos, although I cannot say for sure whether or not they were factory original. The bottom line for me is that while I might knock myself out to try to find an "absolutely factory correct" part for a presentation-grade Fairbanks or 1932 Granada, I'm not going to worry that much over an American Princess as long as a replacement part looks good and does its job.
Agreed, I think the woodscrew tail anchor piece is the way to go.
quote:
Originally posted by dpgetmanquote:
Originally posted by Joel HooksThe square brass nut is factory orignial and will fit into a mortise cut into the inside side of the end bolt hole. It has been awhile since I took one apart but I would not be surprised is the bolt on the right is factory correct (with an end pin screwed on such as the one on the left).
Whatever you do, consider that the neck should be set flat with no back angle-- the fingerboard should be level and inline with the head. Avoid the urge to use this as opportunity to add back angle to the neck as you will find that when set up properly (with a 1/2" bridge") you will get buzzing if you ever try to play with any right hand confidence.Agreed about the neck angle. About the nut, is there an advantage to drilling it out and sticking it on the woodscrew with the end tail anchor when I instal it?
You might try to remove the ball end from the wood screw and thread the square nut on that way (how it was done by Stewart).
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