Joel,
We did indeed. We also cut aluminum electronic hole covers for the back. I agree they look pretty sweet.
Christopher, I love this. Would this body be for sale? If so, how much?
My most recent X-carved guitar. My interpretation of a '63 Vox Shadow. Poplar Neck, Rosewood fretboard, Basswood body.
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Does anyone have Thunderbird Bass files for easel?
i have PDF and DXF files. but nothing easel-specific yet
I have been using my Xcarve to prep some parts for a steel string parlor guitar to be assembled once the heat is on in the house. This is a sitka spruce top I cut with it. I cut a rosette channel and then made a dozen mahogany segments to be epoxied in. I still have to fine tune the machine as parts are off a little, requiring some hand sanding to fit them in. I noticed my new 9mm belts were a bit floppy so I tightened them after this stuff was done. I xcarved a pyramid bridge, radiused a fretboard, and cut out lining with a 1/16" bit too.
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I wrapped up the operations on a guitar last week. The wood and plastic parts were all made on the X carve. A walnut fretboard on a poplar neck. The body is Willow. It has an import 2 way truss rod and a modified jazzmaster bridge with a Gibson style tailpiece. An SG style 3 way switch and just 1 vol and tone. I put a barrel jack in the side. I was pretty pleased with the neck carve. I won’t have enough time to put paint on it, so It’s not wired up yet.
Ugh. The ability to nail down a rough carve via f360 still elides me. Well, specifically toolpath generation. Looks great, man
Thanks. I tried a different approach here, I did the 3d carve on just the neck shaft only. Then I used a 2.5 d cut on the perimeter and holes. First I did a roughing perimeter cut and followed up with one right to size. I left about 1/16 of an inch of wood to keep it in the waste. Download Meshcam and try that out if it’s that part of the process that is problematic. Meshcam is pretty easy and intuitive.
Has anyone taken a Strat neck PDF for instance and modified it with a custom headstock? I’m assuming I can import it into Illustrator and modify it but not sure exactly how to so it.
I have some that I have done in a paddle headstock, like a plank with tuner holes. You can use F360, inkscape, gimp etc to draw whatever you like
Once you get the lines into the software, you can delete or add any ones you’d like. You may want to download a free Cad Program and learn how to manipulate the tools for drawing, as opposed for graphics.
One example with DXF and DWG input and output…I’ve never used it. The strat drawings on the German site can be had in DWG and sometimes DXF. No futzing around with pdf then.
So I finally tweaked my Xcarve to the point where I feel pretty good about the accuracy. I made these Gibson scale fretboards this week. It takes about 45 minutes from start to finish. That starts with jointing the fretboard 's bottom and edge on my jointer and finishing off with sawing the frets on the stewmac fret system.
The Xcarve via UGS is handling 3 files.
First after taping the fretboard down, I machine a 12" radius to the top with a 1/16" stepover and 1/2" dia round nose bit.
Then I switch to a pointed Dremel burr housed in a 1/4" adapter, and scribe in the fret slot locations. This allows me to align the fretboard to the saw system accurately.
The third file is to drill holes for dots and then taper the fretboard. I added another aspect to mill off one parallel edge so that It lines up with the fretting system. I need to adjust that a little for narrower fretboards. All in all I’m pretty happy with the accuracy and the results.
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Chris, I will be caving the tele soon. I see where you recommend outside cut on the body. What cut should be used for the pockets?
Hey Guys, my Wife and I got our X-Carve back a few years when they had a great deal for Black Friday and have been doing small stuff mostly, signage etc… I am a Bass Player so eventually looking to use the machine to make parts but in the meantime I want to add a pickup cavity to an existing Bass but having trouble finding a file. Looking for a P-Bass Pick-up File. any help would be appreciated! Thanks! Chris
Thanks! Appreciate it!
I’m putting together a kit of parts for a 000 sized steel string acoustic to be built this winter after the heat is on in the house. I used the X carve to cut out the sitka spruce top shape. I made it .375 oversize. The X carve also cut the rosette channel, the sound hole, and the 10 walnut wedged pieces to make the rosette. It came out pretty nice.
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I am not a guitar player myself but this is something I definately could end up doing just for the challenge 
But for now my XY work range is a little too small.
Great job