Thank you so much Austin, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you keep posting these videos. Hopefully I'll be building my designs in the near future and it's all thanks to you. When you decide it's time to build your design, please show us, I really want to see it in the real world.
Of course mate, thank you for watching!! And you bet I will! I'm already starting to plan it out! Just need to convince the wife cause finances are tight with the baby now :P
Amazing stuff Austin. I started using a CNC to build a guitar about 6 years ago. I had no experience using any CAD program and went with Fusion 360 as it was available for free to a hobbyist like myself. It certainly wasn't easy but with a lot of help from members on the forum I finally did it. The angled headstock really made it difficult to make the neck. I actually was able to make the neck from one solid piece of stock but there were areas that had to be finished off by hand because they couldn't be reached. Haven't built anything since the start of the pandemic but seeing how you did it using a scarf joint makes me want to give it another go. Thank you for the video and being willing to share your process.
Austin, I did five test cuts and two real cuts running 200 in/min at 0.125 depth and did not need tabs. Double sided tapes were adequate. Also, I did not need the 3D printed part, I just insert a rectangle block under it with some double sided tape to hold it. You can avoid retract height problem by splitting the model into three. When machining the head or the neck, use only 2 bodies. This effectively lower the stock thickness, yet will cover the area we want to machine. All this have been tested successfully on the CNC.
The amount of work you put into making this video is crazy :) it's amazing. The animations, stock, fixtures... Idea. I make 10° angle to avoid breaking the headstock and make a headstock template for handrouter and drill. The Z clearence is the problem somethimes :)
I love your videos. They have been great in helping me wrap my head around and create an overview and methodology for applying CAM/CNC to guitar making. What material do you use for your fixtures? do you have any videos showing your machine setup? I'd love to see some of these parts being machined. a time lapse with narration would be awesome. Maybe you have and I just haven't seen it yet.
I don’t have a CNC yet, but this is pretty much how I build my scarf joint necks. Only all outline shaping is done with routers and templates. Also I position my scarf joint inside the headstock, not on the back of the neck. If you think about building a neck without a CNC, and then think about what steps a CNC would be beneficial, it’s things like carving the neck shaft, and maybe the outline. I see too many CNC luthiers wanting to not have to do any hand work. But when building guitars that just makes things take longer. Sometimes a band saw and router and template is many times faster. I can drill my tuner holes on my drill press. I have a drill template. Carving the neck is the time consuming part.
Hi! Thank you or all the informative videos! I have an idea when it comes to the tool path starting from the top surface of the stock's bounding box. If you were to start with a box shaped stock and carve out that glued neck blank shape from that as the first step in the same setup, would that help avoid the errors? Of course, in reality you wouldn't run that step but simply skip it instead.
Your videos are top notch. I have cut many things on my cnc and always wanted to start making guitars but after watching this video I only have one question: Were you you a rocket scientist at your last job?
Thank you!! I was graphic/web designer for my previous job (Large Diesel Generators)! Haha. But I worked heavily with our engineers to use the 3d models for marketing.
Great stuff Austin! I really appreciate the time, effort, and attention to detail! Curious as to why you had the raw stock as 5 inches wide. I’m about to build your fixture, but all of my neck blanks are 4” wide, so I have to figure out how to change it.
Great video and absolutely everything explained..... I have one question if you could answer me... Did you build the stepcraft machine simulator or was it already made?
Do you mean the cnc in the video? I created that model of my xcarve a long time ago when I built my cnc. Helps with making mods. The animations were done in Fusion using the animation workspace.
just watched your video on Parameter design, then found all this cool Guitar mfg. content, I want to build a 59 Fender P base copy this will be a huge help ! Thanks again
Very nice. I've been carving necks on my CNC since I built my first machine in 2008, and I still picked up a bunch of stuff from watching you set this up. That said, any chance you could video yourself actually milling this part? I know from hard experience that no matter how good the simulations, actual cutting of complex milling operations like this often need adjusting when you are cutting in the real world.
Very nice video! I was doing so many tests, very close to what you did here, but I faced so many problems when tried it on a multiscale design, the angle of the headstock just kills everything and I also had a big issue with the fretboard, I don't want to glue the fretboard after the neck is shaped, so I had to come up with a jig that takes the neck with the fretboard glued on, then you risk the fretboard edges when cutting the shape and contour, it's a nightmare lol
I haven't attempted this on a multi scale neck, but I can definitely see how that would complicate everything. My gut instinct tells me that this method "should" work for this if we changed our wedge to accommodate that angle. But it does seem like that may require a 4th orientation for our part. I'll give that some more thought and maybe put out a revision to this for multiscale necks. A couple of my viewers in Discord also brought up the fretboard glueup as something to pay attention to as well. Because "ideally" you want a finished neck coming off the cnc. I think you would have to laminate the entire top surface of your truss slot area with a flat blank for your fretboard in order for that to work, otherwise you don't have a flat surface when you flip the part over.
Sort of, all of my designs are available for download for Patreon members only atm. The intent isn't really to sell the designs but just provide patrons with additional help material as a way of saying thank you.
Austin, I saw your posts on the Fusion360 FB group and was triggered. But man, this is incredible stuff! I'm about to build a ES335 and really want to cnc the neck. With this method I think it might even work. One question though, will it be possible on my 24x 16 cnc (or 60x40 cm)? I can do a flat neck diagonally, but not sure about this. Although the 2 separate scarf parts are probably within range. What are your thoughts about that?
Sorry for the delay Leo, been a crazy few weeks! It's possible to do diagonally, I believe, provided you have the z clearance and use a fixture similar to what I've shown here.
I think that the placement of the scarf joint is too far down the neck from the head stock. From the scarf joint to the head stock you no longer have straight wood grain, the angle of the wood grain is now what ever the angle of the scarf joint (see time line 1:12:36). The usual place that the neck breaks is closer to the head stock than where your scarf joint is. I am not sure if the joint can be moved in this case and still be programmed. I have not tried to model it yet. I would also like to thank you for all the videos that I have watched. I've learned a lot from them.
I thought about that too, but after fiddling with a lot of different versions I noticed there are two factors that determine where the scarf joint rests on the neck. Your stock thickness (and where the part is located inside the stock) or the scarf angle. The angle of my headstock in this design is 10°, and since I aligned my nut line to the point where the headstock changes angle, that is the only place that scarf joint can be. However, some people put their scarf in the headstock itself, which produces a cleaner result, but is arguably weaker because there is less surface area in the joint. It's also important to remember that the fretboard, when glued on, also supports and essentially traps the headstock in place. So as long as my fretboard glueup is rock solid, it should be extremely strong.
Thank you so much Austin, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you keep posting these videos. Hopefully I'll be building my designs in the near future and it's all thanks to you. When you decide it's time to build your design, please show us, I really want to see it in the real world.
Of course mate, thank you for watching!!
And you bet I will! I'm already starting to plan it out! Just need to convince the wife cause finances are tight with the baby now :P
So many questions answered in one video. Thanks for sharing Austin!!!
Amazing stuff Austin. I started using a CNC to build a guitar about 6 years ago. I had no experience using any CAD program and went with Fusion 360 as it was available for free to a hobbyist like myself. It certainly wasn't easy but with a lot of help from members on the forum I finally did it. The angled headstock really made it difficult to make the neck. I actually was able to make the neck from one solid piece of stock but there were areas that had to be finished off by hand because they couldn't be reached. Haven't built anything since the start of the pandemic but seeing how you did it using a scarf joint makes me want to give it another go. Thank you for the video and being willing to share your process.
your talent with this program amazes me, well done
Austin, this is a great video. I can't tell you how appreciative I am for all the content you put out. Your an exceptional teacher and designer.
Thank you Austin. For taking the time to create such a professional video tutorial.
Austin, I did five test cuts and two real cuts running 200 in/min at 0.125 depth and did not need tabs. Double sided tapes were adequate. Also, I did not need the 3D printed part, I just insert a rectangle block under it with some double sided tape to hold it.
You can avoid retract height problem by splitting the model into three. When machining the head or the neck, use only 2 bodies. This effectively lower the stock thickness, yet will cover the area we want to machine. All this have been tested successfully on the CNC.
Many thanks for this great professional video, very helpful, detail and clear ...
Another quality video, packed with great instruction, and great ideas. Well Done.
Pretty cool approach to a challenging problem.
The amount of work you put into making this video is crazy :) it's amazing. The animations, stock, fixtures... Idea.
I make 10° angle to avoid breaking the headstock and make a headstock template for handrouter and drill. The Z clearence is the problem somethimes :)
Great video, thanks for creating these tutorials.
I love your videos. They have been great in helping me wrap my head around and create an overview and methodology for applying CAM/CNC to guitar making. What material do you use for your fixtures? do you have any videos showing your machine setup? I'd love to see some of these parts being machined. a time lapse with narration would be awesome. Maybe you have and I just haven't seen it yet.
Absolutely love your content! And I am in awe of your generosity. You’ll make a luthier out of me yet!
I don’t have a CNC yet, but this is pretty much how I build my scarf joint necks. Only all outline shaping is done with routers and templates. Also I position my scarf joint inside the headstock, not on the back of the neck.
If you think about building a neck without a CNC, and then think about what steps a CNC would be beneficial, it’s things like carving the neck shaft, and maybe the outline.
I see too many CNC luthiers wanting to not have to do any hand work. But when building guitars that just makes things take longer. Sometimes a band saw and router and template is many times faster.
I can drill my tuner holes on my drill press. I have a drill template. Carving the neck is the time consuming part.
Hi! Thank you or all the informative videos! I have an idea when it comes to the tool path starting from the top surface of the stock's bounding box. If you were to start with a box shaped stock and carve out that glued neck blank shape from that as the first step in the same setup, would that help avoid the errors? Of course, in reality you wouldn't run that step but simply skip it instead.
Your videos are top notch. I have cut many things on my cnc and always wanted to start making guitars but after watching this video I only have one question: Were you you a rocket scientist at your last job?
Thank you!! I was graphic/web designer for my previous job (Large Diesel Generators)! Haha. But I worked heavily with our engineers to use the 3d models for marketing.
Great stuff Austin! I really appreciate the time, effort, and attention to detail! Curious as to why you had the raw stock as 5 inches wide. I’m about to build your fixture, but all of my neck blanks are 4” wide, so I have to figure out how to change it.
Great video and absolutely everything explained..... I have one question if you could answer me... Did you build the stepcraft machine simulator or was it already made?
Do you mean the cnc in the video? I created that model of my xcarve a long time ago when I built my cnc. Helps with making mods. The animations were done in Fusion using the animation workspace.
just watched your video on Parameter design, then found all this cool Guitar mfg. content, I want to build a 59 Fender P base copy this will be a huge help ! Thanks again
Thanks for sharing awesome video! I'll be using this with my shapeoko XL once I finish a ukulele design I'm happy with =)
Dude, your 3d printed fanned fret ukulele project is amazing. Can't wait to see it play!
@@austinshaner It better be headless.
Very nice. I've been carving necks on my CNC since I built my first machine in 2008, and I still picked up a bunch of stuff from watching you set this up. That said, any chance you could video yourself actually milling this part? I know from hard experience that no matter how good the simulations, actual cutting of complex milling operations like this often need adjusting when you are cutting in the real world.
Very nice video!
I was doing so many tests, very close to what you did here, but I faced so many problems when tried it on a multiscale design, the angle of the headstock just kills everything and I also had a big issue with the fretboard, I don't want to glue the fretboard after the neck is shaped, so I had to come up with a jig that takes the neck with the fretboard glued on, then you risk the fretboard edges when cutting the shape and contour, it's a nightmare lol
I haven't attempted this on a multi scale neck, but I can definitely see how that would complicate everything. My gut instinct tells me that this method "should" work for this if we changed our wedge to accommodate that angle. But it does seem like that may require a 4th orientation for our part. I'll give that some more thought and maybe put out a revision to this for multiscale necks.
A couple of my viewers in Discord also brought up the fretboard glueup as something to pay attention to as well. Because "ideally" you want a finished neck coming off the cnc. I think you would have to laminate the entire top surface of your truss slot area with a flat blank for your fretboard in order for that to work, otherwise you don't have a flat surface when you flip the part over.
Hi. Great video, any chance that you would share the file? Regards Benny
Thanks for the videos ! do you sell the plans for the 3d printed fixture ?
Sort of, all of my designs are available for download for Patreon members only atm. The intent isn't really to sell the designs but just provide patrons with additional help material as a way of saying thank you.
@@austinshaner Thanks I will check it out
Austin,
I saw your posts on the Fusion360 FB group and was triggered. But man, this is incredible stuff! I'm about to build a ES335 and really want to cnc the neck. With this method I think it might even work. One question though, will it be possible on my 24x 16 cnc (or 60x40 cm)? I can do a flat neck diagonally, but not sure about this. Although the 2 separate scarf parts are probably within range. What are your thoughts about that?
Sorry for the delay Leo, been a crazy few weeks! It's possible to do diagonally, I believe, provided you have the z clearance and use a fixture similar to what I've shown here.
I think that the placement of the scarf joint is too far down the neck from the head stock. From the scarf joint to the head stock you no longer have straight wood grain, the angle of the wood grain is now what ever the angle of the scarf joint (see time line 1:12:36). The usual place that the neck breaks is closer to the head stock than where your scarf joint is. I am not sure if the joint can be moved in this case and still be programmed. I have not tried to model it yet. I would also like to thank you for all the videos that I have watched. I've learned a lot from them.
I thought about that too, but after fiddling with a lot of different versions I noticed there are two factors that determine where the scarf joint rests on the neck. Your stock thickness (and where the part is located inside the stock) or the scarf angle. The angle of my headstock in this design is 10°, and since I aligned my nut line to the point where the headstock changes angle, that is the only place that scarf joint can be. However, some people put their scarf in the headstock itself, which produces a cleaner result, but is arguably weaker because there is less surface area in the joint.
It's also important to remember that the fretboard, when glued on, also supports and essentially traps the headstock in place. So as long as my fretboard glueup is rock solid, it should be extremely strong.
what size dowel pins are you using ?
3/8 (.375 or roughly 9.5mm) precision steel pins). Usually accurate to +/- .001