donald k wilson

here's the guitar with the neck and fretboard back on. I was trying to decide about a color scheme, I'm leaning toward a slow tobacco burst with a blond fb. the cherry will be darker on the sides, back and neck. We'll see...

I couldn't stop... Here is a closeup of the neck extension back on the guitar, I'm playing with the line above the body.

checking the fit of a fret to the radius and depth of the slot. Everything fits nice. I am getting the hang of the picture thing, I'll be starting from the beginning with the rest of the project. This wouldn't have happened without alot of advice and suport from the folks at mimf...

Next shot, cutting the fret slots in the radiused fretboard. the bit is 1/8"dia in a 1/8-1/4 bushing, .025 doc .075 loc. I wasn't sure it would work but so far it has cut 4 fretboards no problems.

Ok, here are some more pics. These are current progress, I'm experimenting with the neck and fretboard. this shot is cutting a 12" r. on the fretboard

I just finished fine tuning mine about a month ago, I changed the base to a solid foot instead of two. (significant improvement of tone and sustain) I used the proceedure as above and it hasn't moved since. dkw

Thanks all, I'll get more pictures up soon, I just had to figure out the "network" seemed to work fine. The archtop is an experiment to see what could be done with a cnc machine. So far almost every aspect of this guitar was dome by cad,cnc. 2d, 3d drawings, toolpathing, profile cuts, carving front and back, jigs and fixtures... I have pictures of every step of the project, I just need to get organized (ha ha...) The top is "cat scratch spruce" available at most lumberyards commonly referred to as 2x4. I didnt want to screw up expensive tonewoods in the learning curve. sides and back are cherry I had lying around in the shop, neck too. The neck in the pic is pine just a prototype to test fit scale fretboard color... F holes are a combination of Gretsch and Guild, gretsch style fat body and guild holes, a little more stretched out. I want an old school look, western swing roadhouse. More to come, thanks, dkw

Here is a picture of the archtop progress, some of you have seen this in bits and pieces at mimf. If I get everything working i'll show more from the beginning. dkw

I want to start a thread about my archtop project and I can't figure out how to attatch photos. Help??? thanks, dkw

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I got lost... Yes, I'm the one with the cnc archtop. As soon as I get better organized I'll do a post here. dkw

I bought the Benedetto book and found it very helpful. Some woodworking intuition will get you through the thin sections. I'm about halfway through my archtop project now and as I go along the book makes much more sense. I didn't get the video although I have seen several good reviews. You need to decide whether you want an electric or acoustic, thinline or hollowbody as they have some structural differences, plywood vs carved top... The book is focused on a traditional archtop, not alot of info on electronics but it's still a pretty good read.

Hey all, donald k wilson, dkw. Invited here after a scolding on MIMF... I've done lots of repairs, woodworker by trade 28 years professionally. Finally getting around to building one of my own, an archtop, I'll get some pictures posted. I do alot of work on a cnc machine, I will try to share technique, setups etc.

Hey Jay5 I came on over. I was thinking about building one of these so already we have a success... Thanks for the invite, I'll see if I can get a post up on the archtop project.