Sha-banjo!

The hull on the bottom of the peghead makes certain standard techniques inoperable, so I'm getting creative on the drilling operations.

Here's my technique for drilling for tuner posts. Tap a center punch on the mark, hit it with a 10mm brad point bit for the bushing (.160" deep), and finish with a 1/4" brad point bit all the way.

Then on to the slots. The idea is similar with the tilted table. The bit is a 1/2" Forstner.

After drilling a couple we can see where the failed through holes came out.

 

Ok, time to dig... out of trouble and through the peghead. I'm calling this excavation. The plan is to make more traditional slots for the first and fifth strings. Here's a look after one session chiseling the slots flat (almost there, but I'm scared and approaching the hole tangent points carefully) and one session of excavating with my trusty Harbor Freight carving gouge. So far I think it looks cool. Unfortunately the failed holes each failed in sort of opposite ways, so the corrected slots will be something like a least common multiple as I blend them toward each other. The first and second string through holes are so close. As best I can tell right now I think it will come out ok (if I don't slip).