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Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Hi,
I joined the forum last year looking for advice on where to get a machine that would be suitable for my hobby of building guitars. I was pointed in the direction of Dean ( JazzCNC ) and after having a bit of a chat with him, put my name down for one of the small 9060 machines he was planning on doing a run of.
I got my machine April time and have been spending the time since then on clueing myself up on how to run it / create toolpaths etc.
Ive recently been working on building a Les Paul style guitar using my machine and have successfully now got both a fingerboard and body made for my guitar. The fretboard for this guitar is ebony and uses celluloid for the inlays . I designed it in Fusion and successfully machined and then fretted and bound my fingerboard ...
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The body is made from African Mahogany, its actually a four piece body, primarily as I got the wood cheap and figured if I end up mucking it up, then I wouldn't be as devastated as if I trashed a pricey Brazilian Mahogany body blank. The body requires machining on both sides so I had a bit of homework to do in regards to flipping the workpiece over and realigning with steel pins. The mahogany was routed and weight relieved in preparation to having a maple cap added ....
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The maple for the top was prepared again using the CNC to flatten and thickness the two halves and also joint the edges of the boards, which it did brilliantly. I created my toolpaths in Fusion and ran them on the machine...
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https://youtu.be/VIiyef8TqXc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J04wwVrkMgw
Once again, it performed brilliantly, I cant say enough good things about Deans machines. Especially as a beginner in the world of CNC'ing , I think I would have thrown in the towel if I ended up with a machine that didn't really work as it should or just caused ongoing problems that as a beginner I wouldn't have a clue how to solve. The fact that it just works as it should is brilliant for a newbie such as myself as it allows me to just get on with making stuff and not having to faff around with the machine itself.
Next up is to design and make a jig to hold the body at an angle in the machine in order to route the neck and pickup cavities at the correct angle in relation to the body ( they aren't parallel to the back of the guitar) and then crack on and get the toolpaths sorted for the neck as well. Ill hopefully have some more to show in the near future !!
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Looking Good Ben, you seem to be getting to grips with the machine nicely. Look forward to seeing the finished guitar.:encouragement:
Oh, those caps should land with you tomorrow or Tuesday.
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Looking really good so far.
That's where: Researching avalable machine options not jumping at the first thing that 'looks' good......and......Taking your time with learning how to use it, will get you.
:smile:
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Nice work Ben, very inspiring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JAZZCNC
Oh, those caps should land with you tomorrow or Tuesday.
Dean, you should throw in a packet of HobNobs after such a great advert :joker:
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kitwn
Dean, you should throw in a packet of HobNobs after such a great advert :joker:
Cheapskate!.
More like a bottle of single malt (or 2) :whistle:
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dazp1976
Cheapskate!.
More like a bottle of single malt (or 2) :whistle:
I think Ben would appreciate a lump of Brazillian mahogany more, which I do happen to have. Would cost more than the machine to post though..:hysterical:
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dazp1976
Cheapskate!.
More like a bottle of single malt (or 2) :whistle:
Yes but Dean is a Yorkshireman :joker:
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Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
So since my last post, I have managed to cut the neck and pickup cavities for the guitar. These are perpendicular to the plane of the neck which is 4.2 degrees in relation to the back of the guitar. I built a simple jig which is angled at 4.2 degrees and fixed the guitar to it, this way, the machine is doing simple 2.5 cutting. If I were to cut it with the guiar flat to the CNC bed it would end up a mess as the cavities are essentially undercut.....
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Next up to create a neck. I dont have a lot of photos of this, but essentially I cut the cheeks of the tenon joint which are again 4.2 degrees using the CNC and a 4.2 degree wedge that allowed me to simply cut a straight vertical line for the cheek of each side of the tenon and then just drove the CNC around and machined the waste wood away. I then created my G code for the neck and machined just the shaft of the neck and the transition into the headstock using a combination of adaptive, parallel and "steep and shallow" operations in Fusion....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pldfTEF5RfA
Came out really really well , the more I use this machine the more I love it !!
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Its really starting to look like a guitar now !!
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I need to glue two "wings" onto the headstock to make up the full width and then cut the final headstock shape which I will do on a normal router table for speed and convenience. Once that is done I will glue the fretboard onto the neck, blend in the stock that I left proud on the edges of the neck and then we are onto the home stretch !!
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Looking good. Very inspiring. Where are you sourcing the hardware for this guitar?
Kit
Re: Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kitwn
Looking good. Very inspiring. Where are you sourcing the hardware for this guitar?
Kit
Hi there and thanks !!
I've got a mix of hardware for the guitar. Pickups are Seymour Duncan, tuners are kluson. For the bridge and tailpiece I will either use Faber or Gotoh parts. Then various plastic parts I have sourced from different places. I have also cut out the back cavity covers for the guitar myself out of black ABS.
I need to get a bit of a wiggle on with it really as it is going to be a gift for my brothers 40th birthday at the end of September. It will take a few weeks for the lacquer to cure after I spray it. But for that I will need a compressor and spray gun and a crash course on how to use them :topsy_turvy::topsy_turvy:
