larger bridge pins

[Ron Nossaman]

>My question are :
>Do you use to cut the pointed end to avoid delaminating of the bridge.
>Is hand drilling (with a handle enough to ream the hole to the good
>size ?

I use an electric hand drill (3/8" VSR, or my Makita cordless) with a bit 
the same size I would use if I was putting that size pin in a new cap. A 
conventionally sharpened bit will grab in the existing hole and chew the 
heck out of your bridge cap. Yes, I am a witless, er, witness to this fact. 
I use an old trick I stole from long gone folks who worked with cast iron 
and had a similar problem. With a diamond grit stone, I grind a small flat 
on the cutting edges of the bit, parallel with the length of the drill. 
This changes the drill's cutting angle from 60° or whatever it was to 90°, 
and makes it into a rotary scraper rather than a rotary chisel. It no 
longer grabs and dives into the hole, but rather chews it's way in very 
controllably and non-destructively. I can get a good fit without doing 
further damage in the process, but I do this before I re-notch - just in case.

Ron N