Guitar Building with my JazzCNC machine

[the great waldo]

Well Ive been continuing to work on the guitar. Pretty much all the CNC side of things was completed at the last update and its on to more "traditional" methods of guitar construction . Hence the slowdown in productivity !! ;)

Ive bound the body and drilled all the holes on the guitar body as well as installing the bushings and ground wire and added a round over on the back.

Glued the "wings" to the headstock as well as a maple veneer. Shaped the headstock, drilled for tuners and added a logo inlay as well which was cut on the CNC out of the same cellulose nitrate material used for the fretboard inlays.

Fingerboard is now glued to the neck and its pretty much ready to glue the neck into the body, just keeping them apart for now as its easier to work on each piece individually.

Once glued itll be finish sanding and then onto finishing ( as long as the weather plays ball and I can find a window of opportunity with low humidity ) .

Hopefully will have something to update you all with in a couple of weeks when I start on the finishing as long as the weather and humidity play ball ) ....

Great Job Ben

Did you use the Tom Bartlett plans as a base for the guitar design ? If you ever want to sell the machining files please let me know. I'll have died from old age before I figure out 3d design software !!!
Cheers
Andrew
Ps Northwest guitars do a good nitrocellulose laquer as wel as Morrells

[BeeceUK]

Great Job Ben

Did you use the Tom Bartlett plans as a base for the guitar design ? If you ever want to sell the machining files please let me know. I'll have died from old age before I figure out 3d design software !!!
Cheers
Andrew
Ps Northwest guitars do a good nitrocellulose laquer as wel as Morrells

Hi,

I didn't create this model myself, I purchased it off a guy on GrabCAD. It comes as STEP files which I loaded into Fusion 360 and from there generated toolpaths. Even with the STEP files however, Ive had to play around with the models a bit in order to correctly generate toolpaths.

A bit like you perhaps, I find the the 3D modelling can be a tricky bugger, Im currently enrolled on a level 2 Parametric Modelling course at a local college and have successfully modelled a couple of guitars myself in fusion ( telecaster , les paul junior ) but the top carve of a Les Paul is a seemingly simple thing to do but a bugger I've found when I have tried so far.

I have chatted with the chap who created the files and yes it is based off Tom Bartletts 59 plans. Ive actually got a few sets of Toms paper plans kicking around from when I built without the CNC.

You're the second person to recommend Morells lacquer to me. I was planning on using Dartfords from Rothko and Frost but will have to check out Morells. To do the sunburst I plan on mixing up Aniline dyes to do the burst and hopefully fade it back in the sun.

[the great waldo]

Hi Ben

That'll be from Matt then. I bought a set of files from him as well. I'll have a crack at running them through fusion. If you get analine powder dyes from lockwood they fade really fast in the sun. Although the sun here in Austria can be more intense than in the UK. I really prefer to use the stewmac colortone liquid dyes as the colour you get tends to not bleach out. Sun exposure can be a bit hit or miss and unpredictable. The reds do tend to fade fast. You could try a mix of both analine and colortone liquid. Plenty of info on the https://www.mylespaul.com/forum/luthiers-corner.26/
Anyway great job so far with Deans (Jazzs') machine it all looks really good.
Cheers
Andrew