Cutting F-Holes
(or M-Holes)

by: Jeff Miller

used with permission

Okay, well it's time to try this M-hole thing. I've never carved one of these F-holes before so I'll give it my best shot.

Visit Jeff on his site at GuitaristJeffMiller.com

First, I used an x-acto knife and I cut out a M-hole pattern that I created.

Now, I trace it on the guitar top in a suitable location.

I drill a hole in the center of the M-hole all the way through the top. I'll use a dremel with a router base to cut it out.

I'm using some downcut mini router bits and a router base from stewmac. I'll be cutting the M-hole out freehand with the dremel. No templates for this puppy. Yikes!

This is after the first pass. Not too bad! Stay inside the line, stay inside the line.

All the way through! It took a few passes. I cut around an 1/8" or so each pass.

The tips of the M were too small for the router bits so I used my bridge pin slotting saw to finish up the tight areas.

Now just gotta smooth out everything with sandpaper.

That turned out pretty darn good I think! We have an M-hole!