KeithHowell Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 We are looking at getting a CNC Machine to assist with our production. The machine would be used for drilling bodies ( not carving) and for making other small metal parts, as well as fret slotting. Does any one have any suggestions? Keith Afri-Can Guitars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 a milling machine would not work for you?i realize they obviously need more hands on time...but they are much cheaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneMonkey Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 I think your doing the right thing by asking for recommendations. CNC's can be a bit of a mine field. I would try to talk to as many companies as possible that make parts out of a similar material and size as you will be. See if they can recommend (or even more importantly - tell you not to buy from) any manufactureres or agents. Keep your eye on the retooling costs too as you're pretty much bound to bust a few bits when your debugging the programme. Have a look for good technical support too, as personally I would say it'll pay back itself for when things go a bit tits up. Well, I suppose that this was a bit of a useless post. I've read your posts before and I doubt if I've put anything that you haven't already thought of. Good luck dude and send me a cheap guitar....... ........Oh and your .co.uk wont load on my computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddgman2001 Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 Hi Keith, we use a Shopbot. It's OK if you're really good at setting up machines. Their Forum is the best. Lots of help. Which is as important as the machine itself. Check out their site www.shopbottools.com and forum www.talkshopbot.com Look for posts from Gerald Dorrington. He's pretty much the smartest, most capable guy on the whole forum and he's not too far from you. He sent me a link to your website once. I love your guitars, I'm going to have to buy one sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 What is your budget? If you are looking for something a little more industrial, try Haas CNC. I use one at work ( I'm also starting to do some guitar work on the side) I love this machine. We've had it for almost 7 years now and have not had a lick of trouble. We have a VF-3 which is big enough I could cut neck through guitars if I wanted to. But Haas has many smaller machines as well. The control is very easy to use and learn. With one day of training you could be programing and cutting parts. The only thing is they cost alot more than a shop-bot. It all depends what your want to do. One other advantage of a more industrial type of machine is a tool changer. I was just rereading your original post, and it sounds like you want to do several different operations in you machine. With a tool changer you could set up a fretboard, cut the fret slots change tools cut the inlays, change tool and cut the taper, and you only set the job up once. If you were doing runs of say 10 fretboards you would have 30 maual tool changes. With the tool changer you set up the job once and from there you put your board in the jig and hit the green button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHowell Posted February 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2005 Thanks for the advice all. I don't have a budget yet but am trying to put one together hence the post. The designer/chief engineer is very keen on getting a CNC machine to up production. However like all engineers, and I include myself in this, he will find the fanciest machine with the most features so he can play and then only use 10 percent. The websites are under going a rebuild, hence the reason some are not working. We should have them up shortly. So watch this space or the announcements area. A friend of mine bought the company hence the changes. I am taking over as production manager. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddgman2001 Posted February 9, 2005 Report Share Posted February 9, 2005 What is your budget? If you are looking for something a little more industrial, try Haas CNC. I use one at work ( I'm also starting to do some guitar work on the side) I love this machine. We've had it for almost 7 years now and have not had a lick of trouble. We have a VF-3 which is big enough I could cut neck through guitars if I wanted to. But Haas has many smaller machines as well. The control is very easy to use and learn. With one day of training you could be programing and cutting parts. The only thing is they cost alot more than a shop-bot. It all depends what your want to do. One other advantage of a more industrial type of machine is a tool changer. I was just rereading your original post, and it sounds like you want to do several different operations in you machine. With a tool changer you could set up a fretboard, cut the fret slots change tools cut the inlays, change tool and cut the taper, and you only set the job up once. If you were doing runs of say 10 fretboards you would have 30 maual tool changes. With the tool changer you set up the job once and from there you put your board in the jig and hit the green button. ← Good points. For us the lease payments on a Haas would have put us out of business in no time. If you're company is grossing $400K+ per year, you should have no problem keeping up with the payments. Not to hijack the thread, but I've a quick question for jer7440. If you were building guitars on your Haas full time, how would you go about locating your fixtures on the table? Would you use something to index the fixtures and use a common home point, or would you re-set your home point with every fixture change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted February 9, 2005 Report Share Posted February 9, 2005 If I was doing this full time, I think I would build my fixtures to a common home point. That way all you have to do is clamp your fixture into whatever you use for reference, load your program and go. Right now I don't have the luxury of keeping a common reference point in my machine (I have to do some real work with it once and while or the boss gets ticked). I just make sure my fixtures are square to the table travel and then I use an edge finder to pick up a corner. My programs are all based from this corner, or this x0 y0 point. I am in the middle of my first protype right now. Hopefully by the time I start doing the real thing, I will have my own digital camera so I can document the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOJO Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 check with Ron Thorn at Thorn inlays.. ( besides inlay, and guitar building , he also builds CNC machines... he may be able to build you a custom CNC to meet your needs..he's a great guy to deal with too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHowell Posted February 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 Thanks MOJO. Do you have a URL to the CNC building part of the business? I could only find a link to the custom guitar area. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drezdin Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 (edited) I think that Mr. Thorn no longer builds cnc's, but he's very kind and has answered lots of questions and gives good advice about them. I think the last he built was for Scott Healey. Edited February 18, 2005 by drezdin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 If you check out Thorns' guitar website you will see he recently bought a haas machine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddgman2001 Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 (edited) What's Thorn's background? He seems to have a lot of experience for the number of guitars he's built under his own brand. Great work, great eye. Edited February 19, 2005 by ddgman2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOJO Posted February 20, 2005 Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 (edited) you should give Ron a calll, i'm sure he'd be more then happy to talk shop. i can't say 100% sure if he is or isn't building the CNC machines any more ( maybe since he got his guitar line off the ground he doesn't have the time any more between them and all the inlay work he does for other guitar companies ) but like Drezdin said the last one i know he completed was for Scott Heatley and that was within the last year or so..if he's not then he'll definatly get you headed in the right direction in what would be best for your needs actually another guy whose brain you could pick is Joe Driskill at Driskill guitars..he's like a mad little scientist when it comes to CNC Techy stuff. he actually built one of his guitars to be played by breath pressure ( for a guitar player that was Paralyzed in an accident ) really far out space age robotic stuff .he's good folk too.. funny as hell Edited February 20, 2005 by MOJO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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