I start with a quarter inch hole when using a violin peg reamer. The bent sides look very good.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Before I bought a reamer I filed a screwdriver blade to match the taper. If you only want to make one dulcimer it should work, especially since pegheds are primarily held by glue not friction. The tricky part is getting the hole sized to allow the treaded portion to self tap itself. Another is making sure you check for tread direction. Two will be left handed, two will be right handed. As tuners go they are worth every penny and have that oldtimey look... Bob

Thanks for the suggestion- I will look at their page. The pegs I plan to use are for violins size 4/4 (see the pic attached), so they should be the correct size. I also will buy the reamer, that thing isn't cheep though!

I have installed them in banjos. They are really nice. I haven't installed the fiddle type. Which style are you using ?. You will need a tapered reamer just like you would use with wood pegs. Check out Pohaku ukelele company, their tech page has a great tutorial on installing peghed tuners.... Bob

Well, things are moving along with my project- the dulcimer rib sections have been bent to shape and the fretboard has been made, with some relief carving on the sides. I have ordered a set of four Perfection Planetary Violin Pegs (size 4/4) for the dulcimer tuning head that I just started to work on.

These geared tuning pegs are highly rated and I do like the traditional/classical appearance over other geared tuning pegs.

I have not installed these before, (and actually the pegs have not arrived yet) so I am looking at various tutorials on YouTube and such.

My first question is what size to drill the peg holes in the peg box before they are reamed ? I have not found any info on that! (I am ready to start carving the tuning head & scroll and want the holes bored first.)

My guess is 3/8 " but don's want to make any errors.

Does anyone have some advice as to the hole size?

Thanks!!

updated by @bob: 02/19/19 07:00:15AM