Slow build log - not much defined on this one yet

[Eric Baack]

This was a bit of an excuse to use the CNC router so I'm starting up a slow build that I'd like to eventually sell. I've got some of the wood for it but still need the main body blank and fretboard blank. I'm up in the air on the body blank. I'm thinking walnut as I love the grain and how it turned out on my PRS inspired build.

For the cap I have 3 pieces of nicely figured hickory that I've cut with the cnc in a cool pattern. I'll be laminating some 1/8" Pau Ferro strips for a bit of a curved racing stripe look.

The neck will be laminated walnut/maple/walnut with a Pau Ferro fretboard. I might leave electronics out at first and give a prospective buyer a choice on them.

I'm hoping to get some good use out of the CNC on this one. It should be fun.

[Eric Baack]

Here's what the pre-machining on the top will be. As stated earlier, the pau ferro strips will go into the curved space that are symmetric with the guitar center line.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I really like the look of a "sort of" non symmetrical top.

The curved lines using different colors of wood looks really nice.

[Eric Baack]

I'm thinking of a parker fly style guitar on this one. Here's a 3d model I made a while back:



Here's the cap glued up and some shots of facing the back of it off on the cnc router. I'm pretty happy with it.

[Hans Bezemer]

Cool Eric,
Great to see your DIY-CNC-router at work!

[Eric Baack]

It makes an excellent planer too! It just takes a bit longer... I could have cranked the speed up on it and was taking some pretty light cuts, but I wanted a nice surface.

[Eric Baack]

Just for fun, I recorded the machining simulation for the pockets and outer profile on the front of the guitar

https://youtu.be/hBgpLVn-WuA

[Eric Baack]

Here's the sketchup model, exported as a .stl from solidworks. The solid around it is so that sketchup doesn't machine away the stock (and waste a lot of time and tooling making un-necessary sawdust)



Here's the graphical representation of tool paths generated by sketchucam in sketchup

[Hans Bezemer]

Cool.
Following with interest.

[Eric Baack]

Time to revisit this now that the CNC is about up and running. I've re-worked the model to get a really smooth neck to body transition and added contour to the back. I'm planning to cut a test run out of some pine and see how things turn out instead of ruining some nice wood. Heck, if the pine one turns out that might become my own.

Here's the rendered model from solidworks:



This shows how smooth the neck to body transition is suppose to come out.




Here's her back side...

[Eric Baack]

Here's the neck glued up with the laminations. the 2 stripes are mahogany. I cut the profile on the cnc and then used it to face off the middle strip before using the spindle sander with a fence to smooth it out.

I did some test cuts on some pine of the body using the g-code generated with the sketchup add on and yeah, I'll be throwing that app in the garbage. It didn't even compensate for tool diameter! I'm using an evaluation version of cam-bam now, we will see how that does. It seems to be straightforward enough to do the stuff I want.

Here's the neck:

[Dan Smith]

Well, so far it looks saweet!
Dan

[Eric Baack]

Cutting some pine to test the code..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv_UsPy ... e=youtu.be

[Eric Baack]

Good thing I tested on pine again!!! the acceleration on the Z-axis was too high and it missed steps on a retract and then sent a nice 3/4" deep gouge through the body.. I adjusted my mach 3 settings and re-cut the top and it turned out nice. other then the huge gouge...

Gotta flip it over and machine the back. If all goes well I'll go ahead and cut out the body from a nice sandwiched piece of maple/walnut/maple.

I figured out that the hickory top with the pau ferro strips in it is about 1/8" too narrow so I didn't glue that on. Used a nice piece of maple instead.

[Eric Baack]

video actually works now.....

[Dan Smith]

video actually works now.....

Awesome Eric!

[Eric Baack]

The Z-axis is doing some strange stuff. while machining the back last night it retracted to a couple of inches above the body. my max speed in the Z is only 50 IPM and my max acceleration is 3 in/s^2

going to have to get that figured out before I try cutting out the nice body.

[Eric Baack]

I shaped the neck with the cnc tonight. It turned out pretty good.

[Eric Baack]

I even found that chipped out piece on the headstock and glued it back in. then I have to glue wings to the headstock and finish that as well as cut the truss slot.

[Jason Rodgers]

I love the juxtaposition of the guitar neck and legos: everybody brings their toys to this table!