Almost ready to generate toolpaths to cut pickguard. Going to send preview to customer. Blue label record looks to fugly to me. My eyes hurt, Gonna see if he’d rather try the black label.
Optimized shapes for toolpaths, set inner diameter of toggle switches to .0635 so it’ll cut accurately, with 1/16 endmill. I think that’s what I used last time. Also gotta to remember to increase the feedrate to prevent endmill for cluttering with vinyl. Nevermind, don’t have a 1/16 endmill. Should cut fine since, not using those square holes anyway. Going to use the datum center point at center of vinyl record. Will secure with screw and double sided tape and tiger clamps. Ready to cut waiting for customer approval.
Limitations of Meshcam, don’t allow cut along a line. Not sure if it’ll work with fanfrets, gonna have to dig deeper on this one. He uploaded his code also, so I can see it’ll work for on multiscale. Ran it in camotics also. G18 changes the plane to along XZ. It has an arc in the cut, and cuts straight no weird pocketing moves that would enlarge the slot. Maybe combine this with the ramping from easel pro, might be a lot, but i’ll try. Multiple people had issues doing this in meshcam. Not sure if making a pocket that small will cut cleanly.
“I have started a new post on this topic rather than append it to my guitar build thread because I feel it will be of wider interest. Last night I successfully managed to cut 1.5 mm deep, 0.6 mm wide pure arc slots for the frets in a guitar fretboard I am making using the G18 (arc in XZ plane) command in conjunction with the G02 and G03 CW & CCW arc commands.
I wrote the GCode for this myself. The YouTube video below (filmed with my iPhone, hand held) illustrates the process. I used a 0.6 mm diameter, Kyocera solid carbide two flute end mill cutting in 0.25 mm depths per pass. The system parameters were extremely conservative to avoid breaking the fragile end mill. Spindle speed 10,000 rpm, XY feed rate 600 mm/min, Z plunge rate 120 mm/min but all Z movements were done outside the line of the stock. This is a test/validation cut on spruce tonewood. The final cuts will be done on European oak.” -Doug
Ordered some screws for inserts I already have, wasteboard is about .75 inches, 1.5 inches body thickness, and 1.85-2 inches for uncut body. Make two cuts for bevel and length. Wait for these to get in to measure the countersink holes. Also make sure it deep enough to clear the first surfacing cut. The inserts should help repeatability. The hammer video just uses these screws first, then cuts the hole for the dowels in the wood body. Removes body and then drill holes for the dowels in the wasteboard.
Ordered some bits. Larger depth of cut (1.5″) for contours and acrylic O flute. Must alter body thickness to 1.5 inches, may be good for weight relief or balance out with fillet main body cavity.
Now we get to talk about one of the things that a lot of beginners don’t know. It’s another skill that you will need to develop and if you already have, in my opinion you’re off to a good start.
There are a lot of tools out there that can do this for you at least in part. I would encourage you to learn this skill it’s an intricate part of the setup process and if you get good at it your accuracy can be as good as automated systems don’t get me wrong, I do use edge detection tools just not for this particular job, I only work in relative coordinate systems in g-code terms g91 in relative coordinates. I set the origin in fusion 360 and mirror that location on my machine by indexing from the part and the bed.
The other option is absolute coordinates or g90. In this system you have to place the part on the bed relative to the origin settings you’ve made. In the cam setup, absolute coordinates add a degree of difficulty to two-sided milling and for this reason I avoid it when i flip apart using relative coordinates. I only have to get the part on one axis with the machine using either an edge or a center line. In absolute coordinates I would have to match two accesses to accomplish the same task.
Developing my cam strategies, repeatability and accuracy is main goal.
I may have center droop on my machine. I may have to remove legs and add some wood underneath to stabilize it better. Even with the HDZ, if my board isn’t stable, all cuts will be fuckt.
Work holding/ Jigs I ordered a bunch of dowels, I have some metal ones 10mm x 40mm. My goal is accuracy and repeatability. Will make a neck jig, the video below has a jig for the fretboard, but not the headstock. I can make one for the headstock also to be safe. Last thing I want to do is waste wood.
Neck Pocket Neck pocket needs to be perfect. When working support for cnc company, some users had neck pocket issues. Cutting one side of the machine way not be as accurate on another part. Maybe try cutting on same axis and in same region I’m cutting the body pocket from may help. Need to run tests in both axes. The shapeoko is belt driven in x and y axes. I’ve already adjusted the CNC steps per axis on machine. Test Test Test.
OUTLINE- more details added later BODY– hard ash 20x14x1.85″ Work holding- wood metal dowels, screws, may develop a way to use threaded inserts for repeatability 1. Top Body cavity 1.25 doc 2 . Fillet bottom of this cavity with ball nose 3. Neck pocket 4. Top fillet edge, ball nose 5. Flip, have 10mm metal dowels and 6/8/10 x 40mm dowels 6. Back pocket 1.2 doc 7. Back fillet edge ball nose 8. Cutout, may need new router bit for this, plunge bit may not work 9. Bridge post holes, PG holes, ordered some.
NECK/FRETBOARD maple neck 1x4x30 Richlite 20″ x 2.75″ x 0.3125″ (508 x 70 x 8mm) 1. Truss rod cavity 2. Holes for neck holding 3. Glue on fretboard 4. Cut holes for inlay 5. Top neck headstock profile 6. Fret slots before or after radiusing? 7. Fretboard radius 8. Flip, need fretboard jig 9. Neck profile, back of headstock 10. Cut out
PICKGUARD/BACKPLATE, acrylic, should buy acrylic bit 1. Pickguard cutouts 2. PG screws 3. Custom texturing model? 4. Outline cut
TO DO LIST
Start using meshcam to generate toolpaths and for tests.
Machine rigidity tests on Pine, check accuracy, test cuts for pocket, neck ferrules, tuner holes, countersink M6 screws, flat surfacing. Check droop, fix if an issue.
Cut out preamp pcb board. Test if it works.
If works, model 2nd output jack on pickguard.
Model the work holding dowels, The video use combination of both dowel and screws. Issues withrepeatability using the same holes for dowel on MDF may alter the accuracy over time.
Research threaded inserts for repeatability
Model rounded bottom cavity on guitar body, should add resonance for the piezo pickup. Placement of piezo on bass side, neck cavity caused too much fret noise.
Need some longer depth of cut bits for last body cut of 1.7inch thickness. My quarter inch downcuts only go down 3/4″. Buy acrylic bits from toolstoday.
Saving xyz, can just set x and y off fast jog points, some other commands I can use, issue might proximity switches not being precise every time. Something I need to test multiple times. Belt stretch can happen also, Hopefully not between parts. Also something I need to test. https://community.carbide3d.com/t/store-recall-x-y-zero-points/22859
