GuitarGuy

Yep, just send me a pm with what you need.

Add two carbon fibre rods and its a moot point.

Yeah, I ran across some of that info. "Moderately hard" doesn't sound promising, but I figured that laminated with something suitably hard, and maybe with graphite rods, it might work out. Maybe I'll just give it a shot and see what happens.

Gotta love maple. You can make a guitar out of it and use its blood on waffles.

I built a neck out of pine and it still works 1 year later, white pine to be exact. So the maple you have is titanium compared to that. So if pine can work i wouldn't worry about "soft" maple.

And keep in mind that soft maple is most likely harder than most hardwoods. Its a relative hardness.

I'm building a tele and I don't want a pickguard. I've back routed the guitar, but am not sure how to get a good thin slot cut in the wood for the three-way switch. Any ideas?

A small drill, coping saw, files and patience.

Yes flat part up.

Seeing it is a locking nut I would flip the truss rod so the adjustment nut is accessable from the heel, but thats just me.

If you have it at the headstock end you want it close enough to the headstock so the the nut is readily accessable with an allen key. But far enough down so that a truss rod cover can cover the nut.

I personally dont like trussrod covers so I embed mine a bit farther down the neck so it has the access hole like a fender.

Sorry for the vague answer but many aspects of this is based on preference or specific application.

GuitarGuy: y'know, I thought you were right, but take a peek around CnCzone.com's forums; plenty of machines there that seem to be about 2000 bucks, and big enough for entire guitar bodies, metal construction, good quality rails, ballscrews, drivers, and a good router playing spindle, turning out very acceptable inlay results. Not saying it's easy, but it very certainly can be done.

I didn't say it wasnt doable. In fact by the way I have been talking you may have guessed I have plans for building my own. My point was if this Carvwright can produce acceptable results 2K is a decent price for a turn-key solution. But with the right know-how you can build a cnc for $500. But it wont be accurate enough. But for about 2K it is doable.

Regardless.... with metal working a sliding fit is going to be .002"-.005" .... A very loose fit is 0.010". With wood it will be similar. For the high quality inlay that is about the accuracy you will need. With marty's machine it appears that .01 is the lower end of its accuracy so best case is a very loose fit.

Again the point is that 2k for a turn-key machine is resonably priced if it can hit these marks.

accuracy around 1/64-1/32 in. repeatability.

Honestly....Break out your calipers and measure 30 thou... thats the width of a fret tang. You think a gap like that is acceptable in an inlay?

In parts alone a home made cnc will cost you 2k

Let me rephrase that. A home made cnc capable of fine work such as inlay.

Regarding backlash tolerances, by using delrin nuts and threaded rod, one can achieve nearly zero backlash. There are a few different methods for doing this.

Backlash and repeatability are two very different things. You can have a gantry with zero backlash but still have crappy repeatibility.

machine rigidity, stepper power/speed all have an effect on accuracy and repeatibility. An to get that accuracy it costs money. In parts alone a home made cnc will cost you 2k

Im with Drak. Unless you do pine with a walnut cap. My Pine explorer has a plywood top that takes the strain of the TOM posts.

Whatever led you to believe guitar building is a cheap hobby has you grossly misinformed. This is just the start. It is a rewarding hobby but not an inexpensive one.

Alright. Whatever.

Hey dude I wasn't trying to be condecending or anything. I was just stating a fact. It is cheaper to go out and buy a guitar than build one. Just being honest thats all.

Whatever led you to believe guitar building is a cheap hobby has you grossly misinformed. This is just the start. It is a rewarding hobby but not an inexpensive one.

1

cookies turned off? or set to be cleared when IE turns off? Or maybe the cookie is broken? try clearing them.

Just as a side note a good place to get cf rods is hobby shops. They carry them mostly for kites and RC airplane construction. THeyre round but they work.

+1

I think keeping it to a lp/prs is a good idea because that was the majority. If you have something else you want to build build it and enter it in GOTM.

I'm in

1. Tele

2. LP/prs

3. Explorer (no so much cus I got a pine one)

I'll throw in a japanese set of 3X3 tuners an 8" fret leveling beam and some 8" radius blocks.

Judges dont really matter to me although I'm kinda partial to Setch and his impartialness.

Preferably a longer build time 6+ months.

I personally like the entry "donation". On the 2X4 build people were all gung ho and I ended up being the only person that built one......or the only sucker. I believe that the donation would weed out the people that are full of it. And people are more apt to continue building if their name is on the list.

Hey man dont give up yet. My first guitars sucked to say the least. You get better and better the more you build. Just a point of advice. Use cheap wood the first few times. That way if you screw up its ok. And always test out a new procedure on said cheap wood. Easier on the pocket book and not so heartbreaking when you screw up.

Do you really need cad software to build a guitar? Granted it makes things a lot easier but good ole pen and paper does wonders. All the time you spend making somthing in cad you could be done of the project using conventional methods.

It could be the blade or...

Try traming the tablesaw. The blade is running sideways most likely. If so, it makes your saw very dangerous. I can lead to very nasty injurys from binding and kickback.

Under the saw......if the saw is worth anything, there will be an asjustment nut to loosten the saw and arbour assembly. Build a shuttle that has a dial indicator that runs allong the side of the blade in the 3/4" slot on the table. Make sure the blade dials in at .001" or so along its length and tighten the blade/arbour assembly down. I'm sure there are tutorials about this on the web somewhere.

Just make sure it is unplugged first, a no brainer but still should be said.

Pretty cool.

I run mine on a DAILY basis making radius blocks. With just pvc hose and no grounding. There is not even a hint of electrostatic discharge.

Performax 16-32 with PVC hose...the static can raise the hair on my arm close to the hose if I don't run some metal tape around the outside.

It is very difficult to ground plastic. I get little or no static muself so whatever works for ya. Unless you start getting shocks or your insurance requires it, its a waste of time. Get metal (alum dryer venting) or don't worry about it.

I remember reading somewhere that garbage can cyclones don't work very well with high volume dust collectors.

I read that too. I have a lid but no can so I cant try it yet. Mine is 1250 cfm and I was thinking the same baffel idea. But the thought here is to let somthing heavy like a 2X 3 piece of lumber or a wrench drop out of the system so it doesnt break anything, thats all.

As far as a bin to separate chips unless you have alot of work being done its not necssary. The spinning action of the collector causes the chips to settle out VERY tightly packed. It feels like a bag of animal bedding when you empty it. Super compressed. At lest that how mine works. Its a King brand collector.

I would worry more about having some sort of buffer between the ductwork and the impeller. If you suck up a bolt/wrench/tailpiece it'll go right in and hit the impeller. Perhaps breaking a vein or throwing the imperller off balance.

At the very least itll scare the crap out of you when it hits. (trust me it sounds like a gunshot)

What do you suggest?

Not really sure. Currently I just watch what I suck up. Sucked a few heavy blocks of wood and thats bad enough for me.

A garbage can cyclone would drop most heavy stuff. But that is just an inference. You'd hafta experiment with that one. I know im going to have to put some thought into it when I have a perminant spot for the dust collector.

Looking good. Are the hoses from the thickness sander attached to an electrical ground? If not, they will charge up like mad with static electricity.

Not yet, no. I'm going to ground the system tomorrow. I've not been using it yet really you see...

Considering the piece is less than 3ft long and the fact that you can't really ground plastic/poly I wouldnt bother. The entire system is metal anyway. As long as the main system is grounded you're good.

I run mine on a DAILY basis making radius blocks. With just pvc hose and no grounding. There is not even a hint of electrostatic discharge.

I would worry more about having some sort of buffer between the ductwork and the impeller. If you suck up a bolt/wrench/tailpiece it'll go right in and hit the impeller. Perhaps breaking a vein or throwing the imperller off balance.

At the very least itll scare the crap out of you when it hits. (trust me it sounds like a gunshot)

We're talking something really thin here though dude. Where the slots will be, i think it would be weak spots. Especially under the thick E string.

ehhh...im not so sure. You can make all kind of trinkets out of glass. And the pressure at the nut is only a component of the actual string tension.

Look at it this way if you put a solid plate of glass on a flat table and stand on it . It wont break. Same thing with the nut. It is supported by the neck. The one variable is the nut slots. but as long as they are smooth and pressed in like in a press mould i can't see it creating a weak point.

But this is all pure speculation. .......Any glass hobbyiest in the house?