[edlee]

Hello all. I'm interested in purchasing a cnc router for producing guitar necks and inlay. Could anyone give any info on what type of cnc router would be needed for someone wanting to do this on a hobby scale. Nothing fancy, just something to get the job done with ease and little headache.

Thanks to all:
Edlee

Missouri

[jemmyell]

Hi,

For doing 3D neck carving (I assume you just want to produce the shaft and rough head) you will need a fairly beefy spindle, a commercial router will work great. You will need large tools. One guy I know rough profiles his necks with a VERY large roundover bit! This takes a 3HP router and a 1/2" shank tool.

For Inlay, the MOST important factors will be spindle speed and collet runout. If you collets / spindle have a runout of greatet than .001 (less is better) then you will not be able to keep 1/8" shank carbide micro tools alive at a feed rate needed to actually cut instead of grind. The two materials you need to plan for the most are Ebony and Mother of Pearl. Most everything else (especially Abalam) will be easier. Recon stone is also a different thing, but carbide tools work well with it too.

I don't try to profile necks so a Kress 900 watt router is what I am currently retrofitting to my Liberty CNC tables. These are stepper motor driven direct drive tables with Thompson ballscrews. K2 makes an OK table, Techno-Isel and others are good too. You biggest challenges will be software for design and tools and spindles. I buy my router bits from http://www.precisebits.com where you will find more data and advice on Inlay also.

I use CorelDRAW for design.