This is the Eighth video in the Stingray guitar building series where I will be creating the fretboard on my CNC. Someone please help! #vcarvedesktop #vectric #cnc #nextwave
To slot frets i do .012 pass depth, 24,000 rpm, feed rate 8.5 ipm, plunge rate 3.0 ipm, also i radius the finger board first, slot depth does not need to be cut as deep. v-carve lets you place the vectors on the 3d model so you can go around .07". consider buying .06 mm end mills not .023 " end mills. amazon has them. they are just as good as the $40 ones. Happy cncing. Alvin
I have a similar setup and I use a Router with a 90degree drive head and a small slitting saw (40mm x ?thick) Rotozip kit type thing. Good for fret slots and with a wider cutter for neck shaping.
I would love to have a shop like this. I wouldn't have a clue what to do with any of the equipment but I could just look at all the tools, pick them up and play make believe.
Nice fretboard. Personally, I'd have had the light side of the wood on the treble side of the fretboard. It would have given a "lunar landscape with an impending storm cloud" type of vibe, just from the wood grain texture, when the guitar would be held in right handed playing orientation.
I had the same issue with breaking bits on fretboards with those tiny bits. After many bits I realized that the major problem is that I ran the bit in BOTH directions. The fact that your bits broke on the turning point encourage me to think that this was also your issue. After changing the CAM operation to move just one way the problem was gone. Sure.. it takes a bit longer but I managed to cut 5 fretboards with one bit and never had that issue again. Maybe that makes sense for you! All the best from Germany
I would be very interested to see if this works for you Dave. Since it is a slotting toolpath, the bit is conventional cutting 50% of the time and climb cutting 50% of the time- so I wouldn't think the direction would affect it. However, there could be something at play here that I'm not thinking about. Also I have 2 hours of CNC experience lol.
I’m using Vectric Aspire. I use 1/32 bit for fret slots and inlay work. I go 15 passes at 4 inches per minute and haven’t broke a bit in awhile. Was using StewMac bits but I can’t afford to break those. The last I bought were 5 for $25 on Amazon and haven’t broke one of those yet.
Well I just finished cutting my blind fret slots in my Ebony fretboard. No issues. My gcode is setup to cut the slots using the Y axis. Pass depth .0121, rpm 18000, feed rate of 2.7" and 1" plunge rate. My issue is inlays. I've been trying to put a Celtic knot as my 12th fret marker. The problem I'm having is male always larger than the female. I'm using the inlay toolpath function with a straight cut.
Beautiful fretboard. Very impressive. I cut fret slots on my CNC machine. I use 0.6 mm end mills (24 thou) , sold for machining printed circuit boards. They are cheap as chips from ebay. I run them at 24000 rpm, depth of cut 0.5mm and feed 300mm/ min. I've had no breakages.
The fret board looks great I don't have a clue about even running a CNC so no help there. too bad about breaking those bit. I can see why it would be easy to break them sense they are so tiny. Best of luck on the rest of the build.
I think that cooling the bit may be the solution: if you were to mount a compressed air spout near the bit, it not only blows away the chips, but it also cools it. I suggest you buy a large syringe needle and attach it to your compressed air.
I had some trouble with the .023 bit as well. I would radius the fretboard first so you're not cutting so deep into the fretboard. Also, I had some success with about 10 or 12 feed rate taking about .010 depth per pass at the most.
Here are some sources of people that have mentioned feeds/speeds/RPMs with .023” bits: Chris Goode: 5000 rpm and 30 ipm for fret slots. uses a pass depth of 0.0115". These are the settings that Chris of Highline uses: 20 IPM, 10 IPM plunge rate, 0.01" DOC, and he said he runs 16000 RPM all the time.
Yes I used chrises speeds but for me it isn’t working. I’m wondering if there is some lateral movement in the machine just before the bit retracts that is causing the break. Until the bit breaks the cut looks to be going very well.
When the bit is reversing direction in the middle of the wood it stresses the bit greatly. Cut in one direction only or cut passed the edges of the stock MM
Great video as always David. FWIW, I know nothing about CNC other than it's a router and therefore the same logic may apply. Is it possible the feed rate is too slow and the bits are heating up too much? I know if a hand held router goes to slow it burns the wood. Excess heat?
I know nothing about CNC. I was just intrigued that you suspected it usually breaks at the end of cutting a slot, just before moving to the next slot. 🤔 Maybe it's doing some very slight lateral movement toward the next slot before the bit has retracted fully out of the current slot? Unlikely. It makes sense that it breaks at max depth and up against the slot end. Max lateral load on the tiny bit shaft from a full depth vertical face on the slot end wall. Lots of heat. Maybe there are weird and exotic paths that avoid that contact - like starting with a full depth dot at each end, and the lateral runs can then stop a fraction of a mm short of the full depth sidewall contact. Worst case I guess you could just go super slow and go for lunch. I know nothing, but it was an interesting thought experiment! I hope you find a solution.
That is a bummer about the fret cutting bit. I found a source that sells 5 packs of .023” bits for $40. I doubt they’re as strong or sharp as those, but I figure they will be good for practicing as I try to get my feeds and speeds dialed in. If you want the link lmk!
@@eworcustomguitars Hey Dave, sorry I meant tried to post the link earlier this morning but it didn't go through. It's acually only $25 for a set of 5 so it's a great deal for practice bits. Here is the link:
@MOZO Guitars It looks like RU-vid is censoring external web address. Maybe try and post it without the WWWs and type DOT instead of "." to hide it from the bots.
Could the breakage of the tiny bits be a heat build up issue ? Maybe an air nozzle blowing on the bit as it moves through the cut to keep it cool and also would stop any dust from caking up in the slot . Just a thought
What kind of inlay material was that that you cut in this video. Haven’t found anything that size. Pearl is in small pieces. Where do I find Pearl that big?
The mother of pearl material I use is actually plastic it’s .08 thick and it looks really good. It’s almost like pick guard material. I think I bought it on Amazon. Yeah I finally think I got my fret cutting tool path figured out. And like you I started buying the cheap bits on Amazon and hey work great
Maybe this could help ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--u3eTSxH_6s.html, it's a video from Schecter where they show their fret slotting process. My bet would be on the fact they cut in one direction only and that the slot is a concave.
