Newbie seeking CNC info for guitar building

[Washout]

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 ;) ).

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