My other cnc has a work area of 17 x 25 inches which can do a lot of things I need to do. I bought the Shapeoko2 with the idea that I’d have a longer Y axis. It was going to be a dedicated guitar neck machine. I found out that it wasn’t such an accurate machine for instrument work, but after upgrading to Xcarve specs over the years, it certainly has improved. My problem is I work in a 12’ x 14’ shed and two CNC’s, a workbench, and a router table is kind of constricting.
instead of indexing marks, why couldn’t you just take the outermost cut, invert it and cut? As long as you zero your machine, i’d think it would be right.
It’s a nice tight fit - no plans for fancy carvings or inlays in there?
If there’s a need for acoustic guitar templates, I have 75+ templates here on my computer. I’ve been meaning to post them on Electric Herald for a while but I’m caught up trying to finish this automated pickup winding machine I’ve been kicking around for two years or so…
I’ll try to remember to upload them tomorrow!
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Hey joel are any of the files for molds for acoustic bodies?
What scale is the neck for this body?
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Hi Christopher,
Awesome design, is it for a telecaster style neck fit? I would love to have a dxf or stp file of it. Can you email it to: jim woudstra @ gmail . com? (without spaces?)
Thanks!
Hi Jesse, sorry about the extremely late reply. All the acoustic templates can be found in the free guitar templates section on my website: Guitar Templates Archive | Electric Herald
There’s a page just for acoustics. There are way more PDFs than DXFs, but I believe there’s a healthy amount of stuff you should be able to open right up in your CAD program.
i need a decent strat pickguard. ive been working on one but its taking awhile. ihave a perfect abr1 file i made if anyone needs it.
what bits did you use?
For carving the neck I use a .5" Dia roundnose bit for the neck shaft and .5 “dia straight for perimeter cuts. Tuner holes are made with a 1/4” straight bit on a Fender style neck. On a tilt back peghead I drill them on a drill press. For a body a 1/4 and 1/2 straight bit is used for the perimeter and cavities. Pickguards use various diameter straight bits, mostly 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2, and I use a v bit to countersink the holes. I have a1/16 and 3/16 bits for rare occasions, but most of the time the 1/4 and 1/2 is the workhorse. I never really use anything smaller. I do have a .023" for trying fret slots someday, but it is faster to saw them.
Thanks. How do you get from a pdf to a 3d program for xcarve?
I use Rhino3d and it will open a PDF format file. Once it is open in Rhino, I can save it as a DXF. Sorry this is so late as I just saw it.
Rhino - Supported File Formats (rhino3d.com)
There are also pdf to dxf converters online. My experience with online conversion ranges from duds to great, so you never know.
Thank you. I downloaded rhino. What all do I have to do to get my 3d drawings to cut in easel?
I use Meshcam to convert the 3d drawings from Rhino into Gcode. Rhino may have a Cam program now too. I don’t know about that since I just use what I have here.
You save the Rhino drawing as an STL format. You open that STL file up in Meshcam ( or some other Cam program that can handle 3d). You go through the steps in Meshcam. I almost always make the centerline of my parts as x0y0 and the top as z zero. Once you have the Gcode file, you’ll need to examine it for any Gcodes that GRBL doesn’t like. I delete some codes that I have no use for. I did find that it had an issue with Tool numbers…so I deleted it.
GRBL G-Code Definitions - Carbide 3D
Meshcam may have a GRBL post processor, I don’t know, as I have always had mine set for Maxnc, which is an old cnc machine I had. Once you have the Gcode edited, then you go to Easel and start a new file. The last item on the toolbar on the left is a box with an arrow. That is the Import tool. You click that and click on Import Gcode. Then choose your file. Since I don’t use Easel to run my Xcarve, I can’t help you any further than that. I use the Universal Gcode sender. You just open the file and load it…then run it.
Apparently Meshcam has a Shapeoko post processor and that should work with Xcarve machines.
Thank you so much! Do you make the headstock separately from the neck on a gibson style?
I have now created g code for a gibson neck. Is there any way I can send it to you and see if u can make it faster/ better?
This kind of shows my process: Using an X carve to create a 1960 Melody Maker Tribute guitar | Telecaster Guitar Forum (tdpri.com)
What program did you use to create the Cam? I’ve found that having the neck material lying in the Y axis and choosing to machine in the Y direction for both roughing and finish cuts speeds things up. What bit are you using and what is your stepover and depth of cut? Normally I finish at about .050 or .0625 stepover with a .5 dia roundnose bit. I also define the cutting area pretty close to the size of the neck, so the machine isn’t wasting time cutting nothing. I do a perimeter cut first to cut out an area for chips to exit. So I use 2.5 d to do things like the perimeter and hole drilling. I only use 3d on the stuff that gets carved like the neck shaft and transitions, or a carved top like on a LP.
Is there any way you would be willing to share the file for this body?
Hey everyone! Wound anyone by chance have anything close to a CNC file for the back of the neck profile cut for something similar to a strat? Just looking for something close to a “C” or “D” shape. Thanks!