Installing knee lever Flags

[Paul Strojan]

I am in the process of putting some knee lever flags on my Magnum D-10. I have cut some flags out of 1/4 inch aluminum and I am wondering if there is a good way of drilling holes in the knee levers without removing them from the guitar?

[John Hyland]

If you don’t wish to remove the lever I think your only option is to incorporate a clamp style fixing on the flag.

[Rich Cottle]

Yeah what do you mean by flags ?

[John Hyland]

Yeah what do you mean by flags ?

They re a flat panel which has provides more surface area against the knee to give better access and less pressure on the knee.

[Barry Coker]

To do it RIGHT you realy need to remove the lever. Drill and countersink the flag and then use it as a template to mark and drill the the lever. I tap 8/32 threads in the lever and use short Stainless Steel screws.
The other option is clamp on as John said:




Good luck
Barry

[Ian Worley]

Sometimes large flags create issues with folding levers down for packing, they'll hang up on other components. This is a simple way to make flags that are easy to remove and reinstall quickly, these are 1/8" 6160:

[Rich Cottle]

I call em fins or extention fins ,Mullen uses 3/32 " thickness , I think 1/4" thickness would be a little overkill , I've never seen any guitar that uses 1/4"
, I would suggest that you disconnect it from the guitar that way you can use a drill press and get everything lined up , of course there's never enough time to do it right , but alaways enough time to do it over.

[Jerry Overstreet]

Slightly off topic as the OP already has flags designed, but for those tight spots where big flat flags won't fold up properly for casing up the guitar, the Emmons style 90 degree folding flag works great. It will fold up right next to the lever taking up almost no space and not cause any casing problems.

If done properly and attached with a nylon washer, the degree of up and down angle can also be customized by just tightening up the mounting screw in the desired position, then fold up against the lever for packing up.