Hi Tim,

Ive built a few guitars in the conventional way ( hand / power tools ) over the years and after having a buddy of mine cut me some templates in MDF on his big industrial CNC for a build I was planning in this conventional way, it really sparked my interest in getting a small cnc for myself in order to use in future builds. I joined the forum looking for advice on a suitable machine and made contact with Dean ( JAZZCNC ) about getting a machine made which is currently in the works.

I have a fairly ( !!! ) solid background in 2D CAD and in the last couple of months have been working on improving my skills in 3D Modelling ( taking a evening class in parametric modelling ) as well as doing my homework on the practical hands on of CNC'ing. All good fun !!

Ive been using Fusion 360 and have been spending alot of time learning the CAM side of the software to create the code to actually cut the bodies. I think this is where alot of the time and if you are wanting someone else to do it money comes into it. Im learning alot of this from scratch so you have to factor in that it will take me longer than someone whos been doing this for a while to suss it all out. But even then I think alot of this is down to trial and error, setting up the different milling functions involves alot of tweaking and running simulations, seeing how the simulation runs, changing parameters etc, devising an order of milling and so on. Ive spent hours on an evening in Fusion playing round with a model of a Strat working on the CAM to get it to cut right.. roundovers / arm contours etc. All of this would have to be done by whoever takes your job on and I can only imagine they would want adequately compensating for it.

This is before you even run any test cuts. How a simulation runs on a PC and how it cuts in the real world are Im assuming two related but not identical things, you are probably looking at tweaking feeds and speeds depths of cuts and so on. All of this is going to add further costs for you. If someone has to run a couple of test bodies for you again its gonna cost.

You also say you can "source woods easily enough" but do you mean you would supply your CNC operator with prepared body blanks doing all the jointing / thicknessing etc yourself or would want this doing for you as well? If so, then there's going to be more costs involved and you'd have to find someone with not only a CNC machine but the ability to process rough lumber into body blanks for milling and willing to take this extra work on.

I dont mean to sound negative at all. It sounds like we are after similar things, Im just pointing out that I cna only imagine it will cost a fair amount to get this up and running if you want someone else to do the CNCing for you, its effectively like prototyping a part which can often cost alot of time and money. You will have to sort out who covers costs etc, the standard of work / finish you are expecting / happy to pay for etc. For the cost of paying someone else to do this, you could put that money towards a machine and have the fun of learning yourself, but it is a learning curve for sure. And like I say, Im just learning all the computer side of it up to now, Ive still got to get my head round running a machine when I get up and running with it, but for me this is the reason for doing it, the interest in the process as much as the final product.

hope this helps or at least gives you something else to think about.

Ben