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I has been a fun but frustrating day--I think they go together. I decided not to run a test part, but to go ahead and slap the block of mahogany on the cnc for the guitar back and give it a go. Of course I ran into a couple of bugs with m tool paths, but nothing that will be seen from the outside (whew). I did mis calculate, or I should say I decided to shift my datum to better position the part after I was already running and I shifted the wrong way. So I ended up with a tool hole in the back of my part. Oh well. I need to cut the access holes on the back of the les paul, then I will cut away all extra wood. I will then fnish off the top, cut out the neck slot and pickup slots. I have cut a couple of little (1/4") dowel holes to align the top and back. I can not wait to see the top and back joined.
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greg
are those files okay?????
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Greg
Found another file which shows the difference where the body joins the neck - which shows the difference between the 59 and standard.
Do you want it????????????????
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I have completed the body of the Les Paul to the point that I have glued the maple top to the mahogany back. It is still rough and needs to be sanded but the machining is complete. I now turn to the neck. But before I can machine the neck I need to create the neck blank. I bought a nice piece of mahogany about 3 feet long and 3 inches by 6 inches. I should be able to get 4 necks out of it. I planed the four sides that will end up being the side that the finger board is attached to, I figured it was most important that this side was straight. I ripped the big block into half and then attempted to figure out how to cut the headstock angle. We made a jig on the table saw to make an 18 degree cut for the headstock. The attached pictures show the jig. then we went to the band saw and split the piece so I now have four neck blanks. Time to go to the CNC. See the paper pattern taped to the blanks to give me an idea of where to cut? Next comes the machining...fun fun
Cheers
Greg
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Hey Greg, I was just wondering if you would mind posting your gcode so that some of us can give it a go too?
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G-code
Sure I would be willing to pass my g-code on to someone who would use it. I don't know if I want to just blindly post it, but if you are interested in building one of these guitars, send me your e-mail and I can give you g-code. Got anything to trade? G-code, plans, CAD models? I am always looking forward to the next project.
Cheers,
Greg
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I have finished machining and rough sanding the neck. I used input from folks in this thead in creating the model for the g-code and it came out real nice. I screwed the neck blank down to the router table, you can see the screw holes in the finished neck. I still need to route out the slot for the truss rod, but it is all starting to look like a guitar. The neck was only machined from the back side. I use the center line of the neck blank down the long axis and the line where the top plane of the peghead ntersects the plane of the fingerboard for my datums. I used a .75" flat end mill to remove the majority of the material, then a .25" flat end mill to rough finish the part. Finally I used a 5/16" ball end mill to finish it leaving about .025" of material to sand by hand.
Cheers,
Greg
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Greg, I dont have any exciting Gcode that you would be interersted in other than my current project that I am working on. I could send you the cutting code for a Mame cabinet. ( Arcade machine ) Because I am hoping to sell these cabinets I would only be prepared to send it to you alone. I dont really want to post it on the forum so as to setup competition for myself. Is that a good enough tit for tat trade?
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I would not mind sharing my g-code if you would send me photos of your progress. That would be fun. As you probably know there was a bunch of work in the code.
I am starting work on the fingerboard. I will use the cnc to cut the radius of both the fingerboard and a sanding block of the same radius. Then I will use the cnc to cut the holes for the inlay and mark the fret positions. I will use a fret saw to cut the actual fret slots.
Greg
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greg
I have sent you the body file at last I had to search through my discs too find it.
The file is iges.
fret spec
depth of the binding 4 mm and fretboard depth is the same with a 10 radius on top.
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slpd,
Thanks for the iges file. Yes, I am going to use your headstock. I bought a piece of ebony headstock overlay about 1/8" thick. I am going to cut mother of pearl and inlay the multi diamond pattern of the early les pauls into it. I will use your headstock for the outline. I will then attach it to my neck and shape the nect to fit.
Are you interested in making a Les Paul?
Greg
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Yes, most definitely. I am hoping to finish my LP design asap.
P>S. The radius of the LP standard, I think, is 12 on the fretboard - compared to the vintage which is 10.
I would be interested to see how you have progressed.
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I have been working on the neck and fret board. A buddy of mine just got back from Vietnam. First time he has been over since he was there for the war (am I dating myself?) and he brought me back a bunch of mother of pearl and abalone shell blanks for inlay. I used a small dimond bit to cut out the inlay with a vacumn right next to the bit. The dust is bad for you. I then flat sanded the back of my finger board blank, ebony. Ebony is really cool to work with, it is very dense, almost like working with a hard plastic. I put a couple of tooling holes in the end and then screwed it to my work surface. I cut the 12" radius in the fret board, then pulled it off the machine and hand sanded it with a sanding block I machined out of a piece of 2X4 with a concave 12" radius. First I cut fret slots, then the pockets for the inlay. I super glued the inlay in, sanded it pretty flat with the radiused sanding block. Then mixed up sawdust from the ebony (it has to be fine) with epoxy and smeared it into any space between the inlay and the fingerboard. I then sanded it all flat with 280 then 600 grit sand paper. I need to cut out the outline on the CNC, then install the frets and binding on the outside. Coming along............. You can click on the photos to see up close....
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The mother of pearl and abalone shell inlay will look great on the ebony fretboard.
You said that you have gone with the fretboard radius of 12.
There is a trick which some guitar manafactures use and this is done on LP's
they sand a small part of the fretboard between the 11 and 14 fret a bit extra under the low E string making a dip around this area.
This helps to stop fret buzz.
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Hey guys here is an assortment of DFX files to assist in making your own guitar.
http://www.guitarbuild.com/modules/m...wcat.php?cid=5
Here is an example of the sort of things you will find... ( Obviously a lot clearer, and scalable in DFX )
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Hello all ,I would firstly like to congratulate you on your efforts,most excelent.So far I,ve built two guitars, a les paul and a sg but made by hand ,time cunsuming as you all know.Well my story is as follows , I,ve recently started to learn cad cam,ie:Bobcad version 17,thats all i could afford.So far I,ve got a perimeter drawing of a les paul but am having a heck of a time getting the top surface to come out well,any pointers?Another question I have is this,if your guitar is not chambered would it be nesacary to machine the back and front seperatly or could you go ahead and laminate prior to machining.I,ve got to say the guitar looks great.I personaly would love a copy of the g-code for the les paul but have nothing to trade unfortunately,but on the other hand I would be more than willing to pay for it knowing the time you put in .But regardless I still want to be able to generate my own codes. I do have a set of full sized plans ,should I be able to generate drwings in my cadcam from them.Thanks.
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Your guitars look great. A CNC router certainly makes the precision shape easier to create. You can attach the top and back before you machine, but I didn't. I did not want to commit myself until the last moment if I ruined one or the other. If you are not going to hollow your guitar all you need to create the back is a template, the top is then machined and attached.
I generated my shape intially from a set of plans, but spent a lot of time with the real guitar, feeling and measuring the curves. I then tweaked my model until the shadows matched as close to the real thing as I could get them.
Do you have your CNC up and running yet?
Greg
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Hello agian .Yes my machine is up and running,it,s brand new,unfortunately it,s in the basement because im revamping my garage.Going to put a subfloor down and build a partition so next winter it will be heated ,darn Canadian winter L.O.L.How I started my cad drawing was to take the template from my les paul and trace it on a gragh 1/4 inch increments for X and Y.I followed the outline and made points at all the closest intersections,once I had that I could plot X,Y coordinace in my bobcad in 2d.After that i duplicated the outline and all the points in in 3d raising it in the z,joined the points and was left with a 3d shape of the guitar,but getting the top profile is another story on it,s own.Anyone new to cad knows what I mean. Does this sound like the long way around for generating the code?I thought about what you had done with chambering the body and would love to have a go with your g-code.At what speed are you cutting?Also did you generate seperate code for picups ,bridge, stop bar etcetera,or is it all part of the same code .Thank You Corrie.
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The approach I take in creating a 3D model is to try to get into the head of the original designer. I look at it as a puzzle where I am only allowed to use a minimum number of drawing elements. I like to use large sheets of tracing paper. I will trace the guitar outline, or what ever shape I am working on, onto the paper and then fold it various ways to find the center lines of shapes, and to find the shapes that are mirror reflections of others. I take a compass and trace the curves looking for the center points. As I find the arcs, center points, and centerlines, I draw them in. Most complex curves are really a couple of simple arcs joined with a bezier curve. As you do this you can begin to understand the original designers intention—“Oh, I see he used a 4 inch radius curve here and a 1” radius curve here and another 1.5” radius curve there and joined them with a line.
When I have the shape figured out and my tracing paper is well dimensioned I go to the CAD program and create my model using the base shapes. I will then print out a 1:1 plot of the shape I am working on, sometimes using scotch tape to join a bunch of 8.5” X 11” pieces of paper, to get the full outline.
Then I take my traced image and lay it over the printout and compare. I will then begin to tweak in my dimensions or discover where my understanding of the shape is incorrect. I usually find that as my drawing approaches the original, it gets simpler and simpler.
I hope this helps.
As far as the design of the g-code, there are many parameters that dictate which features are cut with each pass. These include how close the blank is to the final shape, how much material you can take off with each cut, your spindle and feed rate speeds etc…
I usually machine both sides of a part, using dowel pins to locate the part to the table to insure it is easy to remove and reposition accurately as well as flipping it over to machine the other side and get the two sides to match.
The first pass is usually a gross material removing pass. I use a large bit and get rid of most of the unwanted material. I usually leave at least .1” of material on the part at this stage.
The second pass then will bring the part down to the actual shape using a smaller bit. This pass takes off almost all of the material leaving maybe .025”—enough to sand later. Sometimes if I am working on a part that has a pretty detailed feature, like the scroll on a mandolin, I will use yet another pass with a ball end mill with pretty tight overlap.
Then I use a pass to cut the features out of the part, like the neck mounting or the pickup holes. I might even run a tool path that marks the holes for the potentiometers. Finally I use a pass that cuts the outline of the part. I leave tabs to connect the part to the blank so as to not loose alignment. These I cut by hand later.
You sand it and there you are………………………..
Greg
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This ? goes out to any one with drawings of a L.P.I just measured the guitar body off of the prints I have and the measurment I got was close to 12 &7/8 inches for the width and for the body length ,came out to 17 inches .According to the drawing it,s a Les Paul custom,but the picups are not humbukers.The lead picup is a P-90 and the rythum is a alnico v. Would anyone know the year of this style,model?