Some Tips On Installing Railroad Spikes

I have installed spikes on three banjos. So, although I don't claim to be an expert, I have learned many things so far. I went to HomeDepot and bought a small Dremel Stylo+ kit, and used a 1/32" drill bit to install the spike on my Deering Golden Wreath this week. It went very well. I took this photo just now of my Golden Wreath, showing the railroad spike that I installed. I play in the key of A most of the time, so I just wanted a spike on the 7th fret. I admit that I felt hesitant installing a spike on a $4,130 banjo. But from seeing the shady work done at Banjo.com and other stores, I trust myself more than I do them. Since I know exactly where I want the spike installed, it makes sense to just do it myself. ...

Some things to keep in mind if you install your own railroad spike. I don't claim to be an expert, but these are some things that I have learned on my own about installing spikes. I bought my banjo spikes from Stew Mac:

1. DON'T drill the hole where the location marker exists in your neck (that's the little cosmetic circle on the side of your neck between the frets). If you drill over this marker, it might break the marker and cause it to come out of the neck.
2. Drill your hole TOWARD the bridge, not the nut. This will prevent buzzing when done. Plus it just feels like the proper place to install a spike, making it easy to slip the fifth string under the spike with your finger.
3. Drill your hole roughly about 1/4" away from the fret marker (the dot on the side of your neck). Again, drill the hole toward the bridge. There's no specific exact place to drill the hole, so you have some leeway. Just don't drill right over the position marker (or it might work it's way out if you break it), and don't get to close to the fret (or you'll have more difficulty trying to slip the string under the spike). In general, for installing a spike on the 7th fret, I like to drill the hole closer to the position marker than I do the 8th fret. See the photos I took for reference.
4. Drill the hole at a slight angle inward. Since your neck is angled inward, it makes sense to drill parallel with the neck's angle.
5. Don't drill too deep! Use your eyes to look at the length of your spike, and see how much of the drill bit has gone into the neck. You just need to drill deep enough for the spike to fit.
6. Drill the hole at the string (perpendicular to the string), or just the tiniest but inward (toward the first string). You don't want to drill too close to the neck's edge, to prevent cracking. Nor do you want to drill the hole too much inward, which will give you way too little string spacing. You want to have the same string spacing when you're done, as all the other strings have. When I ordered a Deering Sierra from Banjo.com, they installed the spikes halfway toward the fourth string. I hated what they did! Your string spacing between the 4th and 5th string when hooked on the spike, shouldn't be 50% of what the spacing is on all the other strings. The string spacing between the 4th and 5th string should be no less than 90% of the spacing between the other banjo strings. I don't know what is wrong with them at Banjo.com, but they did  terrible job! I returned their banjo.
7. Always take side cutters and cut off some of the railroad spike's tip, in effect blunting it to prevent cracking your neck. A sharp spike can split the wood.
8. Use a 1/32" drill bit width. This will give you a perfect tight fit. If for any reason you're hole is ever too big, you can use Super Glue and let it dry overnight to hold it in the neck.
9. I use two business cards, placed under the head of the railroad spike, while gently pounding the spike into the neck to prevent going too far.
10. Make sure you have plenty of light while working, so you can see what you're doing.
11. You can use needle-nose pliers to rotate the railroad spike's head if you need to turn it in the neck after installed.
12. If this is your first time installing a spike, you can practice on a piece of wood a couple times to get the feel for it, and see how it goes.
13. The spike should be tapped into the neck as far as possible, with just enough room left to easily slide the string under it.
14. I used a 1/4" socket extension as a drift to gently tap in the spike. You don't need hardly any pressure, so be careful not to use force.
15. Say a prayer before you begin for God to help you not mess up. Hey, it can't hurt.
16. The main thing is to GO SLOW before you drill. Don't just start drilling, take your time. PLAN your work, and then WORK your plan. Before you start to drill, you should already know exactly where you want the spike. You should know what angle you're going to drill at. I just drilled slightly angled in toward the center of the neck. You should know how deep you plan to go. You can always drill deeper if you need to. I pulled the drill bit out a couple times to see how deep it went, and compared it to the length of the spike. You want to drill just a little bit deeper than the length of the spike. If you use a 1/32" drill bit, it will be a nice tight fit. NEVER FORCE ANYTHING! If the spike seems to be too tight to go in, drill the hole again and it will expand a bit. DON'T use a bigger drill bit size.
17. Worse case scenario, if you drill in the wrong place, you can fill the hole with colored wood filler and drill another hole elsewhere. I've never had to do this. If you take your time, and have a solid plan before you start, knowing exactly what your objective is, you should have good success. Ultimately your goal is to be able to capo the fifth string at the 7th fret. So, even if you drill a little too far in, or too far out, or whatever, as long as you can capo the string, you've succeeded.
18. You should install the spike when you're alone; not when you have company, kids running through the house, dogs under your feet, a cat in your face, your wife nagging at you, the phone ringing, et cetera. Haste makes waste.
19. In summary: Press gently with the drill. Don't go too deep. Stay away from the edge of the neck. Avoid drilling directly over the position marker. Don't drill to close to the fret, because if you do it will make it harder to slip the string under the spike. Use a new sharp drill bit, not a worn or broken one. I have learned that not using any string thickness above .010" works best on the fifth string. Dave Hum actually used a .012" on his Gibson ESS for the fifth string, but when I used size 0.11" gauge on my Deering Calico, it deadened my tone on the fifth string. Dave used a .010" gauge for the fifth string on his Baldwin Ode and Epiphone banjos. To each his own. I'm using a .010" now.

Here's another photo I just took of my Deering Golden Wreath, showing the spike I installed this week. ...

My Deering Golden Wreath Banjo

You can do it my friend!