Small CNC for guitar inlay work - general thoughts

[Neale]

A common fact is that people start out by buying/building a machine to suit their immediate needs, and then realise that they can do so much more now that they have that capability. Or, at least, they could do more if only the machine were just a little bigger/stronger/more accurate/faster...

A friend bought a Chinese machine (fortunately, one of the better ones) to "just" do some engraved lettering on the products he makes. Then he realised that those products could be made better/cheaper/easier/faster by incorporating the router into the build process. Then he found that he could start making items for sale that he just could not do before.

Chris above points out more ambitious uses of a CNC router in guitar making; it might be worth looking at the whole of the process to see if that points towards a different target machine or design for home building. Within reason, a big machine can do small jobs as well, but a small machine is always a small machine.