I’ve said that since I started using a cnc. It’s 10x harder than using templates but the results are 10x more satisfying. Plus is the thrill of the challenge! Great job! Love your channel.
That's just the profile stuff; the 3d milled arm bevels, belly cuts, neck contours, fretboard radius, and even radiused fretboard slots. I think template cut profiles can be just as accurate as CNC work, but with the CNC your off and making the next model, and the other guy is still making another template.
Two Cherries Instruments absolutely. Plus the repeatability is endless. I just hope I get to the level you are with yours. I love making videos about the CNC machine but I still have not got confident enough to mill out a guitar blank yet. Hopefully that’ll be my next step in the future! Thanks for the videos man!
Okay you have me wanting to get my CNC back up and going. Ive watched this video 4 times now lol. I’ve been looking for a spindle. Do you have one you’d recommend or one that your using. I’d love to see a video on you cnc machine setup. Thanks again bud!
I'm in the process of designing/ building a new machine. I plan to cover the entire process as I go through it. As for spindles, Im using a Chinese 2.2kw , nothing special.
Two Cherries Instruments awesome. Can’t wait to see that. I just bought a new power supply to get my machine up to 48v and I bought some linear guide rails. My gantry is by far my weak spot on mine and it’s because of the way the v groove bearing ride on the aluminum. My machine is a Gatton cnc I built about 3 years ago. Been needing some upgrades so I figured I’d get to work on it. I’ve been looking at the 2.2 k and 1.5 k spindles. I’m tired of using my dewalt router and plus the noise gets unbearable at times. Thanks for the info man. Look forward to your cnc build!
Excellent advice! When my CNC arrived, I thought this will make things so much easier. Little did I know that I had just opened pandora's box of new challenges and learning. Just finished cutting out my first neck successfully. Once you establish your own custom process that works, your CNC becomes a "manifesting of ideas" machine.
Ahhh, yes, that is true, but the real question is, to what end? If the goal is a better surface finish, I would argue that even tool engagement, which is not total depth, is more accurate and provides a better than good enough surface finish. If the goal is to eliminate all handwork to remove tool marks, I would call it a fool's errand. I find my hand finish sanding process to be quick and efficient, and although most think that I don't do any hand work, that I do it all with the CNC, I do a considerable amount, and I wouldn't have it any other way. A Luthier that attempts to eliminate manual labor, in the end, is not going to turn out very consistent work; these skills must be maintained and improved just as much as learning the CAD/CAM side.
@@TwoCherriesIns Full depth finish passes removing approximately 1.5 to 2x the tools rated chipload will yield a better finish, and it will do it much faster - a single pass vs. many. Also: tooling life. Running the tip around eight times means eight times the wear, so the bit needs sharpening 8 times sooner. You'll still need to do plenty of sanding on the parts you carve with a ballnose. I don't understand why you'd do extra sanding on the sides when it's totally possible for a downshear profiling cut to leave a finish that needs maybe a little 220 hand sanding at most.
@@028fn48dne It sounds like it hit the nail directly on the head; tool life is a feeble argument unless you try to eliminate hand work at a very steep cost. A carbide tool maintains dimensional accuracy in wood for a very long time. However, it does suffer on the finish surface side of things, which is more critical, surface finish or accuracy. Speed, you say, well unless you are in a production environment, and I'm not, I make custom parts and rarely more than one or two of a model. It just doesn't make sense when you only save a small amount of time. I do extra sanding everywhere, and I use my carbide tooling for years, not months, not weeks, but years. The tool rotation you are talking about would come with a better surface finish but at a high cost, and that's not something that interests me. If you like what you are doing, then keep doing it; I promise I won't comment on your content about how to do it my way.
@@TwoCherriesIns lol you're so fragile. So invested in presenting yourself as an expert, but contradicting what any tooling manufacturer would tell you is an effective best practice.
Thanks for the tips on g90 and g91. I'm making my guitars for mass production. My machine isn't that rigid, so this is absolutely helpful. Your strategies are much different than what's out there. Appreciate you sharing your insight. It's very helpful in creating my own process.
Thank you very much. I appreciate that you noticed the effort put into this production. I have been studying creative non-fiction writing and recently took a short course on screenwriting. I hope to apply more of these techniques to the narration of these videos. I hope to improve both the production value and voice over writing in the future, and I hope that I am on the right path.
@@TwoCherriesIns I have to say, ALL your videos I have been watching have come across extremely professional - which is a really nice change from the many 'sub' quality You Tube videos I have watched.
I have a CNCRP 24 x 96 with standard movement, nema23's, and a ballscrew/Pro Z. I love it, and hate it. Haha. I'm going to upgrade the X to linear carriage, and hope to afford a spindle some day. Main use is making snowboard parts. A friend badgered me into making a few Telecaster bodies. I started with the Thinline. Yes it's 2 piece, but all the cnc work can be done from the top side. Anyway, it's been fun. My first was made from 2x4's cut up and glued up, with a bamboo top. 2nd is Swamp Ash with another SA book matched top. It's perfect. I have my files and machine zeroed at the center, and top surface of the part. I use the z zero touch plate. I have a vac hold down powered by a shop vac, sealed off with masking tape.
Indeed, the standard CRP machines are regularly a love-hate mixture. I have worked it hard. I'm working on an upgrade soon. I have a plan for this old girl that I think is interesting.
An air blower jet pointed at your cutting tool will do wonders. I cant imagine how I managed on my CNC before I had that! If you get a small reciprocating air pump you dont even need a noisy air compressor, just hook the pump to a Mach4 relay and it comes on when your spindle does.
@@TwoCherriesIns I had vacuum dust collection first, with brushes around the spindle. It is nowhere near as good as an air jet, whichnclears the chips even out of deep grooves while it is cutting. I don't even bother hooking up the dust collection now, partly b3cause it just doesnt work that good and partly because of thenhigh noise and energy costsmof a shopvac running all the time when cutting. The little reciprocating pump is only about 120 watts and nice and quiet. It blows chips out of the grooves, but also blows them away from the top surface of the material as the spindle moves around. The chips and dust end up around the periphery of the workpiece and can be vacuu ed up very quickly after the job is done. Anyway, great video, thanks for sharing. 👍🙂
@@wizrom3046 sure, I do run air blast when cutting small metal parts, I have a few videos that you can see it in. I use a full 4" dust collector the air volume is much higher than a shop vac, and the noise level is much less. The linear rails on this machine have a tendency to get jammed by chips so I don't use air blast with wood, and it makes an absolute mess of the shop with dust.
@@TwoCherriesIns Ahh ok great thanks for the info. Yeah the air blast does send ships flying, that's not a problem on my machine I have linear rail types that are dust proof. 🙂
I don't use absolute all that often, or really ever on my CNC machine. Some machines like the Inventables machines require it. I have put together gcode for a few of these machines. I usually create a sacrificial jig that is milled to index both access with. Similar to the way I did the neck on the Violin.
@@TwoCherriesIns I'm a carpenter by trade... Loved making stuff with my hands..in the winter I'm a computer geek .. what better way to put my two lives together... The cnc is a thing of beauty but it's only has good as the information you give... Thank God I have vcarve and Mach 3... Your videos are an inspiration
@@jigsey. there is actually a lot of finish work after the CNC, I use it for accurate roughing work. Every part is hand worked after the machine. The carpentry experience will be very useful.
Good video... personally I'm at the frustration phase. Just bought a tiny 3018-Pro to learn on first and using Fusion360. Hit the CAM part of the process, and knowing nothing of bits, speeds, feed rates, offsets etc... all I can say is that my voice is no where near as calm as yours. :) But... fingers crossed this time next year I'm designing guitar bodies on a bigger machine.
I am also using a 3018-pro with Fusuon 360 and hoping to use a bigger machine! The idea of doing a two-sided piece is mind boggling to me lol. I don't want to make guitar bodies but I have successfully made some cool projects and want to start a business.
I fine that there are times when doing some jobs with hand tools is better. It may take a little longer than if it was done on the cnc machine. By the time you model the part, do the cam portion and the setup on the cnc you end up spending more time than doing with hand tools. Where the cnc shines is doing multi parts of the same thing and complex parts such as guitar bodies and necks.
This is true, however, the way I use the CNC takes longer than making by hand. The Tradeoff is in the accuracy, Perfect angles, and yes, repetitive operations(I don't do many of these). What the CNC does for me is make one of parts like necks and bodies high precision on the first try(sometimes second).
This guy treating this mdf like it's gold, taping and marking it properly. Me, machinist with crappy vise and machine takes the hammer to a chunk of crappy steel that hasn't been prepped. "GET IN THE VISE METAL!!"
I love the "I do it my way because it works for me" vibe. I'm glad I'm not alone. I just bought a shapeoko XXL but I have my own experiences to utilize as I go forward. Doesn't mean I'm not willing to learn and apply new knowledge but for guys like us, we need to progress with what feels right to us. Great vid. I subbed 😎
I really love the way you produced the body in this video. I want to design and CNC a guitar body & neck, but my CNC is too small to printer either part on my bed at once. I was wondering your thoughts on precisely CNCing Half the job, move the wood and CNC the other half. I would love to be able to pick your brain about ideas. My CNC is not large nor is it dedicated to do heavy jobs. It’s a desktop low powered machine. Like you said in your video, I do not care about how slow my process is, as long as it is accurate and reducible.
Nothing special, a lot of this work is done with a 1/2" x 3" Straight two flute carbide router bit. I got a seal a lot of 10 of them a while back. The carbide lasts a long time on wood; I think this is the last one. I will be replacing them with 2" bits. I have changed my strategy for carving deep heel contours for acoustic guitars, and I no longer need a 3" bit. Everything else is done with 1/4" X 1' carbide spiral two flutes from the local big box hardware store and a .75" two flute carbide ball nose, also from the local big box store. I don't use any expensive specialty bits; everything is cheap and easy to get.
Interesting? Parts that come from my machine undergo two to five hours of handwork to complete them. Do you require more than that amount of time to get the same feeling? Rough carving requires very little skill. The craft is in the fine finish work. For this bass, all the edgework and contour blends are all executed by hand. Even more, work goes into the handwork necessary to complete the neck. Don't you think both the man and machine together put out a better product that is cleaner and with better accuracy?
This is a 2.2Kw spindle. I would use anything smaller. I don't run it at top speed around 24K, and the slowest I would run it would be around 8K. They are not all that expensive but worth every penny, one of the best upgrades I have installed.
Hi, how accurate do you think a cnc machine should be for guitar making? I am a weekend woodworker trying to get into the cnc game but can't afford the price tag of those 40k one thousandth of an inch cnc machines... Do you have a standard in your mind for the precision of these machines?
It depends on what you are trying to accomplish; the limiting factor is often the material with woodworking. In my opinion, the highest accuracy attainable in most types of lumber is 0.01". I have found that a decent friction fit falls into about that same tolerance. To be able to achieve that standard, you are going to want a machine that is fairly repeatable at around 0.001", most machines can accomplish this, the difference is the skill of the user.
Two Cherries Instruments, not re-index. But what I understand about g91, every move is from the current location. So if you load a file(say roughing with a 1/2” end mill) as your first tool path. You start at work zero-zero. When you change bits to say a ball nose for finishing and load the finishing tool path, you’d have to execute a G0 x0 y0 before you cycle start. Yes? Otherwise the g91 will just have the program run relative to whatever random location the spindle happens to occupy. Yes?
@@danrocha4940 Not exactly. The X, Y, and Z are Zeroed wherever you chouse (this location comes from the origin setup in Fusion360) when you load another G-code file, as long as the origin is the same, you don't have to re-zero. You do have to re-zero the Z whenever you change the bit. It can be done during a manual tool change in the middle of the program if necessary.
Hello my friend, great video congrats, please tell me what kind of machine do you have, then where do you buy that, so this machine cnc router its working super , Thanks for the video .
My CNC is a CNC Router Parts CRP2448 standard machine frame. The electronics were all purchased separately and assembled for a significant discount. If you have this skill or are willing to learn, it's a great way to cut down on the cost. I will be upgrading soon. I have run this machine for seven years.
Hello, first of all, great video! I noticed you are using a CNC Router Parts machine, I was wondering if you could tell us a bit more about it, how long have you been using it and are you happy with the performance? I have an opportunity to build one so I am trying to determine if it's worth it? Thank you in advance, keep up the great work!
I get this request all the time. You guessed correctly, this machine is the Standard CRP2448 machine frame. I have had it for around six years. there are certainly some quirks with this machine mechanically, the electronics are another issue this I will save for the end. You have to stay on top of the maintenance on this machine, debris can clog the linear rails easily. If you keep it clean and well managed it is quite the workhorse. I hope to upgrade to one of their Pro machines at some point and go up to the 48 X 48. The electrons on this machine are all mine, I put together everything on my own at a considerable discount. This is probably a bit too much for the average joe, but if you have the skills or the wiliness to develop them it's both satisfying and can lighten the load on the old wallet a bit. The most recent upgrade is the 2.2Kw spindle, I ran this machine with a router for quite a while, I would suggest the spindle as soon as you can afford it, It makes a huge difference in the quality and performance of the machine.
Great video! I'd like to know your experience of why you don't cut the shape all the way through with the CNC and avoid the band saw. Also, I would like to know the tools used (size/spiral or straight etc.) for this project and how you employed each (with the exception of the bull nose). Thank you
There are a few reasons I cut the bodies this way. If I cut the outline completely with the CNC, the tool is cutting at full engagement, the chip load is high and this requires a slower feed rate. In addition, this slot milling is deep and there is no way to clear chips. 100% tool engagement and re-cutting chips make for inaccurate cuts and pore surface finish. It’s quick and easy to make a single shallow pass with the CNC and use this make to rough out the shape on the bandsaw. Then the outline cuts are around 50% tool engagement and they do not pack the chips into a slot. I can get away with faster feed rates and the results are more accurate and with better surface finish. This also saves some time, believe it or not. As for the tooling I use, there is nothing special. They are all regular router bits from the local big box hardware store.
My spindle is not set up to run counter clockwise, I may appear that way in the video. The burning comes from rubbing of the bit. This hole is .125" x 1.75" there is not a good solution to this problem. The burning is slight, and doesn't have any consequences so I just live with it.
New subscribee here! I am a designer and CNC programmer by trade and have been investigating which router and software combo I should invest in. The problem is, how come it seems no software seems to accept .stp files or other formats I could save out using solidworks? I want to design my own files and import them into the CNC software to program. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
You may want to look into using software like Fusion360. The days of exporting solids to external software are over for me. If you need to modify geometry or add in a sold for the CAM it's as simple as selecting the design menu, draw and model the feature, and back to manufacturing to continue your CAM work. This is similar in Solidworks; the price point is considerably higher. Fusion360 can cloud convert almost any format. The free hobbyist license of Fusion360 is not as limiting as people have been saying. In my view, the only change that makes any noticeable difference to me is the decreased rapid rates. I try to keep rapids down anyway, and I'm not doing production work, so it's not critical. I ended up purchasing a license; I'm making enough money to justify the cost.
@@TwoCherriesIns Thanks for the input! As I mentioned, I'm new to the CNC routing world, but I'm very familiar with the world of design and programming as far as the manufacturing industry is concerned. I just want to be sure my investment does not limit me in creating my own 3D design and machining it into a finished product. I will be sure to look into fusion.
So do you find that a pencil line is accurate enough? I have OCD and thinking "OMG! I could be .05mm off!" is terrifying, but I see you line it up each time & your stuff comes out great. My spindle only supports 1/4" shafted bits (max) so I'm even more limited in such deep cuts since longer end mills would flex so bad, so I'm going to definitely try the bandsaw trick. Thanks so much for these videos, they're so informative & give me hope that my first guitar will actually work :)
I usually use a center seam of a two-piece joined blank. I could probably do this more acutely; the highest accuracy possible in wood is .01" and that's already one-quarter of an mm. I go to more extreme lengths to hold this tolerance on necks, I haven't found this necessary on bodies.
@@TwoCherriesIns I tend to forget wood isn't metal and ±.01" is perfectly acceptable. Besides, half the time it moves more than that after it's cut. Sometimes, wood just wanted to be a tree...
My milling strategy is to rough at .125" steps with .06" stock to leave, and finish with .25" steps in two .03" passes. I don't do a full depth cut pass, I have not had good results that way.
@@TwoCherriesIns meanwhile finished a body with this setup.. was a little scary about the tape/glue thing... but it holds perfect! dont even know why i drille all the holes in my cnc waste board ;). Next challenge is the double sided neck carving... do you leave a offset on stock... if the adaption to the headstock doesnt fit exactly in the spot?
@@marctheshark3959 The tape and super glue work surprisingly well. In my experience, clamps slip more often than the tape/CA glue fails; even then, the only time the tape has failed is when I don't set it up properly. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the offset for the head stock.
@@TwoCherriesIns Sorry - my poor english. I mean, flipping a neck and using different "zero" points could leave a staggered transition. Probably not, but if... you could screw the whole neck. So... i prefer to do a little bit of sanding, instead of the risk. I hope, this is clearer now?
Yes, I'm ruining a 2.2kw spindle, however, it's air-cooled. The slowest I can run it is 100Hz. There is not a good option for such a small deep drilling operation. It burns a little, but it gets the job done. The slight burning isn't a problem.
Settings for what? If you're talking about CAM settings, that would take an entire video. Everything here is pretty standard in my method and carries over from previous videos.
Just have to laugh when someone says CNC is easier then using hand tools. Drawing, programming, machine maintenance, setup don't just happen when you press cycle start. Also man, I've slotted 50mm depths....Never again, the squeal of the end mill still haunts me. I'm sure there's ways around it but adding 10 minutes to rough cut on a band saw is defiantly the go in my experience. Guess you could do axial stock to leave offset to a shallower depth then come in without stock to leave. repeat 5-6 times but yeah, don't think you're saving time.
On slot 50mm depths I fine that anytime that I slot to a depth of more than 25.4mm. I place a 1 degree draft on the sides of that slot so that there are always a little clearance on the mill cutter where the smooth part of the cutter is. And I always use a cutter that has a diameter smaller than width of the slot.