mistermikev

well that's a good idea... testing it under load as opposed to not. that is a solid idea. wish I'd have known that before I bought a dial indicator! don't see how this corresponds to step tho... I was under the impression that step was a pre-determined measurement based on your motors... and that for the 6040 it should be 320. So the mach3 calib where you tell it to move 1" and then measure and enter that value: that changes steps?

thank you very much for the response. well, good advice there - it is exactly what Mikro advised. I went through my machine, and tightened all the leadscrews. x was a hair loose... but it didn't solve the issue. I also tightened the linear bearings (I think that's what they are called) and it make everything a bit tighter and yet still smooth... but didn't solve the issue. yesterday... on a whim I added some ferrite beads to all axis... when I ran immediately after - it actually ran right... but then ran again to see if it was consisten and it ran wrong. this makes me think it's def a noise issue on the cable. was running this in air and getting these issues. my shape does have two square ends that are actually outside the body area... and I could easily change them to rounded corners... but I don't know how that could cause the issue. well, I had a more experienced cnc'er create a toolpath for me in a completely dif software. oddly, it caused the x axis to go off more and in the opposite direction!! funny thing is... I had re-written the toolpath to do a east/west raster... and this stayed pretty much on coarse until it got to the final pass where it does the profile... then blew up. so it doesn't seem like it's even an east/west issue, but more an issue of combined easte/west while running north/south. afa total replacement - you are def right on here. I've since reconsidered this and am going to have a good look at it tonight... and possibly start by replacing the motor wires. I've read quite a bit on the forums re the 6040 and this is the common theme on them. further, at some point - I'd like to replace the controller anyway... as I'm told the improvements in stability and rapid speed are immense... so that was part of the motivation of a knee jerk reaction to replace everything. i figure, if I'm going to get in there and have to jack around improving the grounding... might be just as much effort to build something new. so... with your cnc... 20 questions... did you have usb or parallel? what controller board did you have? did you use mach3 or something else and if so what?

I agree that it is unlikely an issue with mach3... wasn't suggesting that... just thinking about replacing the controller with literally 'anything' else as I'm told this controller is not great and that this issue is likely related to grounding issues that are common on this machine. there are many threads about gutting them and replacing the controller and all wires. I don't want to go to that extreme... and I'd love to rule out everything else first. I bought a dial indicator and an arm for doing just this (calibration)... but got stopped when I realized I didn't have a way to mound it in my collet (it's too big) and then realized - aluminum is not magnetic (hehe) so can't stick to the bed. I need to rig up something to overcome this and will do for sure asap. can you elab a bit on backlash? I think that would just be an issue if I was running in wood right? I'm literally running this above my work piece in air and observing it go off course. I have my work-piece setup exactly parallel with the y axis. I've jogged to one end then the other with a 60deg engrave bit and it is on the line exactly at either end. that said... when I run this program it will pull zero out by .5" in a matter of 30 seconds. No other programs will. Now, I've cut several things and come back to zero and we're spot on... but if I cut this neck pocket for a few seconds... and go back to zero - we are way off. I appreciate your help and don't want to abuse that - super valuable to me. your .02 is worth it's weight in gold to me so thank you.

so I come here to chew bubblegum and piss and moan... and I'm all out of bubblegum. so, still issues with my machine cutting a neck pocket. have had some help here from mikro - went through my machine and tightened all couplers/bearings and ruled that out - did make some improvements but were not quite there yet. I've cut out the body shape, the pickup cavity and several other projects - all with no issues... but the neck pocket - if I start cutting it and stop the machine and go back to zero: I'm no longer at zero. had some help from a gent on cnc6040 group on facebook, he generated a tool path for me to rule out my cad/cam... funny but that tool path causes the x to drift in the opposite direction! ie sm problem in reverse. so at this point... I figure I must be losing steps. I'm thinking a whole lot at this point about things from getting a planetcnc card ($70) and replacing just my motion control breakout board and using their version of mach3... to buying the parts for a gekko g540/power supply/vfd/wire and building a whole new controller ($500-$800). needless to say my dreams of cutting a neck pocket are no where in my near future. I don't think I'll even bother trying to run the cnc for the body contour/3d stuff. Mostly I just want to piss and moan. Sort of surprised that what I thought would be "the learning curve" was going to be learning cad/cam/mach3. Not that I'm particularly great at those things but they haven't posed nearly the challenge that "random mechanical problems" have. there... I feel better.

it has been my experience... that when someone overheats and/or uses crap solder to make a pot connection... the best way to go is to get some de-soldering braid with lots of flux on it. In fact... I have taken mg chem de-soldering braid, dipped it in flux... and then let it drool all over the pot. Leaves a mess you need to clean up with alcohol... but is 100/100 in terms of getting nasty grey'd out solder to relinquish its grip on pots. At least that is what works for me. Does generally require a little more heat from the iron (usually 550 for me). Hope that helps!

"meep meep".

OK, so it's def NOT that you are pinching her cheeks and well, um....... nevermind.

tru dat

so... n.o.s. chinese fender knecks.... nice. hehe

hehe, nos guitar necks - I'm told they are all the rage... very "in" right now!!

I must say... she has HUGE..................................feet. also, looking great! I noticed that suspiciously there is a lot of petina in certain areas. while I think this looks really cool... can't help but wonder how it got that way.

the "Best" way is the way that makes sense to you. I do lots of things in ways that would not be the best for others... but are def the best for me. that said, I've actually done similar to this before. in my case it was replacing a pre with a new bigger pre. what worked for me then... was to carefully inspect the inside of the guitar to make sure I was going to avoid braces... and then used a dremel cutoff wheel to cut it. if I had to do from scratch, I'd drill 4 corner holes first, then use the dremel. I would avoid leaving corners that are not rounded. there's my 2 cents.

looks good.

right on... need to work more oak into my building. it just smells so wonderful! makes me want to get drunk!!

when I was 15 I worked at the local cabinet shop. there was a guy who built sinks... whom I had the pleasure of working with. he had worked there for several years... and wore a respirator... but everybody in the place would say he was slow. super nice guy... anywho my point is: don't breath anything other than air. even if you take your reg vacuum cleaner and mount the hose near you on the workbench using a cheap u clamp (i do that w my shop vac all the time). finish/paint is among the worst esp if you are sanding it. you can get very fine and very harmful dust. afa safety: have been watching youtube videos a lot lately.. I can tell you that is NOT a place to find safety info!! all sorts of folks doing things that make me cringe. I would advise that for any tool... you go watch some videos of accidents... helps remind you how easy it is and of the common things that cost fingers. my other advice would be - do not do anything with small pieces. 99.9% of accidents are from small pieces! I'm always thinking ahead three steps so that the last thing I have to do for a small piece is make one cut to separate it from a bigger piece... then it needs to be done!! anywho, hope there was SOMETHING useful in my thoughts. cheers

i was gonna say the sm thing. also... oak neck - love it.

lovely as always sir. bet them p90s sound fat and mean. chop chop on the video!!

can't see any of yer pics fyi.

looking above... at some of the inspirational talk... I can't help but want to put in a few of my own: "find a job you love and you'll never work another day... " (and this is my part) "make something you love your job... and it'll become WORK!" also "once, my uncle told me 'mike, you can be anything you want, as long as you just believe'... he believed himself into a job as an insurance salesman" I guess these are pretty dark... but they come from my heart... because it broke learning them!

thanks mr r... very much appreciate it!

it is possible that this was pushing back... but it really didn't feel like that to me. I was going much slower than I'd go with reg 3/4 stock... and yet my purpleheart didn't burn (it is notorious for that). it was sort of a 'rub' vibration. the blade did get slowed by the wood... it's only a 1hp or 1.5hp motor... but it didn't feel like it was 'choking' or anything.

really cool that yer a yungun and interested in building. there might be hope for your generation after all (hehe). wish I had tried a scratch build when I was your age... one of my lifes biggest regrets. I like that you are gung ho about building a neck (most folks are afraid of that), and I don't want to discourage you from that at all, but I also know it can be challenging and would hate to see your zest for building get dampened by a rough "first time". With that in mind, I would humbly suggest that you start by building a body. It's much easier... and if you get that right... then go on to build a neck. I would think the experience of building a body would get you a lot of skills that would help you successfully build a neck. remember - you can spell success without SUCC hehe! If you go fwd with the neck - great. It might be a bit stressful but with help you should be able to come out ok. to build either a neck or a guitar... unless you plan to do it all with chisels (ouch!) you are going to need a router. You could do almost every step of that with a router. the one thing I would say to look out for afa putting a new radius on an existing neck... going flatter you are going to take off a fair amount of wood. generally the finished dimension on a neck is 1/4" thick at the center... and if you take say a 9" radius and drop it down to a 16" radius... you might remove enough wood that it compromises the stability of the neck, or makes the action impossible to get low enough. things to think about anyway! truly hope for the absolute best result for you and am happy to help all I can. cheers

so I'm not a newbie on the tablesaw... but until I recently got one I hadn't used one in maybe 15 years. At one point I worked on one daily... but never much more than typical 3/4 hardwood and a lot of mdf. I did cut solid surface on them... but absolutely never any figured wood. so, I've been getting along with my new tablesaw fairly well. I bought a freud glue line rip that is designed for 2"+ hardwood. (It works fantastic... I wouldn't have believed that you could cut with a table saw, not sand, and glue up... but it's true.) while running purpleheart/maple/purpleheart thru it... it unnerved me a few times by feeling like it wanted to pull the material into it. I did not like that at all. it is fairly heavily figured purpleheart, and well flamed maple. IDK if it was pulling it in or just vibrating weird but it def got my attention. is this normal on a tablesaw? It felt a LOT like when router wants to take off on figured wood so I'm guessing it's par for the coarse. I was able to hold on to it no problem... but if I had been just using a push stick (not that I would do that on 2" material) I don't know what would have happened.

thank you sir. very much appreciate it!!

really going to have to try a set of those fishmans. they don't really sound like what I typically like for clean tone, but they sound great. thanks for the info.