Newbie seeking CNC info for guitar building

Hi Guys, I've just joined and would like to say hello to all. This is my very first venture into the cnc world and I don't even have a machine yet but I'm doing plenty of research on what machine to buy that would make life easier in my small guitar building business. So far I've seen lots of desktop units but the footprint seems to be small on these and I would need around 850x600 --more or less- and a fairly powerful motor as I use hardwoods such as Rosewoods and ebony on occasions well of lots of other softer wood. I'm open to suggestions and would value any info I can get from anyone here with more experience than I have with cnc. I realise its going to be a big learning curve but I'm prepared to learn.
many Thanks
Rusty

Hi Rusty

Welcome aboard firstly.

For hardwoods and only provided you don't want or desire to go into metals (aluminium) you won't need excessive strength/rigidity IMHO, but obviously it has to be better than most commercially available desktop machines. If you can weld I would probably still advise using a steel frame as it will give you more flexibility in materials to cut later, but a decently designed aluminium extrusion frame will be good enough.

I would go with at least supported rails on the X and Y and maybe linear profile rails on the Z. Nema 23 motors for all axis and ballscrews throughout (don't try cheaper leadscrews).

A machine built from these components will go through wood as if it isn't there mostly (friction heat build up due to wrong feeds and speeds is about the only thing to watch out for).

Shameless channel plug as I've just started a Fender Jaguar neck project on my machine which will give some ideas and basically you could do worse than a scaled up version of my machine (mine is not big enough for bodies larger than say a Steinberger style ;) ).

<br>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMSuABd8AzU

Hope that helps and there are way more knowledgeable guys than me here who can chip in.

[QUOTE=Washout;75806]Hi Rusty

Welcome aboard firstly.




Thanks a million for the info . I really enjoyed your videos. Whats the name of the machine you use or is it something you assembled yourself ? I was trying to budget at around 2-2500 euros as I had planned to buy the set of acoustic cnc plans from "Ultimate Guitar Plans Online" and load them. They are quite expensive but it would hopefully be a one off purchase. Its looking doubtful if I will find a machine that suits at that price though. But, I will keep trying anyway.
Thanks again
Rusty

[QUOTE=rusty999;75821]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Washout

Hi Rusty

Welcome aboard firstly.




Thanks a million for the info . I really enjoyed your videos. Whats the name of the machine you use or is it something you assembled yourself ? I was trying to budget at around 2-2500 euros as I had planned to buy the set of acoustic cnc plans from "Ultimate Guitar Plans Online" and load them. They are quite expensive but it would hopefully be a one off purchase. Its looking doubtful if I will find a machine that suits at that price though. But, I will keep trying anyway.
Thanks again
Rusty

---

The machine is home designed/built (with plenty of helpful advice from the folks here)- there is a build log thread somewhere - I'll see if I can fish it out.

I probably have more rigidity and therefore more cost in my machine than you would need if you stick strictly to woods/plastics and mine came in around £2,500 including software (I've spent a bit more since I built it in some upgrades). So you would likely squeeze in at your intended budget and especially if you can weld a steel frame rather than using extrusion - that's trading ease of assembly for cost/time.

I would advise extreme caution when looking at commercial machines - there are lots of snake-oil merchants out there selling under specced machines for overspecced prices IMHO and you only need to look at milling machine prices for non-CNC and CNC variants of the same machine to see this i.e. £3000+ price difference for a few steppers, ballscrews and brackets etc. in some cases.

Hi Welcome,

Ok well unless you build your self then you'll struggle to find a machine that size with only £1900 (2500euro) that is any good. Washout's warning about Commercial machines is very very sound advice. Here's why.!!

I build machines for people and I can tell you it's not possible to build good machine with decent quality components at this size and make enough money to make it commercialy viable. So if they are selling machines at this size for £1900 or less then something is wrong or compromised.

I'm often contacted by people who have been bitten by the Snake oil Merchants when there machines don't work as expected or more often the case breaking down every other week or day. Mostly this happens because they cut corners in areas that matter most, ie: Electronics or Linear rail/Screws. Now to be fair I don't class these sellers so much Rip off Merchants more preditors looking for Green CNC buyers who know no better.
But this happens with machines costing £10K and people who have done some research still get bitten and it's these people who are Rip off merchants.

So be careful because you are the kind pray the preditors are looking for. By that I mean someone with no or much desire to self build and with more than couple of hundred pounds to spend.

If you see anything then run it by the Forum and well give you an honest opinion on it.