You don't have to bandsaw the blank ahead of time. You can set a work coordinate system based on dowels or similar, mirrored along the centerline. Mill corresponding dowel holes in your spoil board, so you can work on the front and back from the same setup. Place the blank on the dowels, clamp down, run the back routing and a bit down the profile of the body. Flip it over on the same dowels, do the front and the rest of the profile leaving tabs to hold it.
@@2ndearthagepromotions There aren't really "specs" here, it's more the design principles for setting up a consistent workspace. To start, having a set zero point allows for rapid stock flipping with minimal input. For example, if you consider most people will run parts like this on the bottom left of their router table, I would mill shallow flats on the X and Y faces of the spoilboard; or even better, add a board on top* that could become a reusable fixture. Once you have that X/Y set (and maybe Z depending on how you do tool height), move over a bit and set a centerline point for the body blank. From that C/L you would place two pairs of dowel pins milled into the surface, and also mill these through your blank, and each pair would be a different distance apart. For instance, the pair at the back are 10" apart, and the other pair are 12" apart (or whatever). This allows you to place the stock, run one side of the body, then flip it over and drop it onto the pins to automatically align the other side. Since the pins have different spacing, it's impossible to load the body backwards and have the neck edge placed where the tail is; a principle called Poka Yoke. Once you have the workspace setup saved, you can place a blank into a common "stock" location, clamp it down and run it. Easiest workflow would be to clamp the piece by lining up the C/L of the stock onto the spoilboard, and run the backside of the body and also interpolate the dowel holes in the first operation. The dowel holes don't have to go through, just enough to get the pins in and allow the stock to sit flush. *One advantage to adding a board is you can not only reuse, but move this fixture piece around the table. For instance, you might have a high priority job set up, but a tool breakage will make you wait for a day or two to wait for tools. If you have a repeating set of holes on your table, you could mill dowel pins in the back of the fixture to align it to the table. This would allow you to throw a body up anywhere you have free space, set the X/Y up on an unused work offset like G59 ( or whatever your software does to track multiple work offsets) and then run bodies while you wait. Or say you have a job that has downtime for inspection or gluing or something, run one step of that job, then start running a body while you do the inspection, then hop back on the first job when you're done. This is what we do on mills where we might have a vice on the left and a fixture plate on the right, each with a different work offset. Hope that was clear enough, I'm drinking.
you absolutely can NOT leave these machines running unattended while you sleep, when things go wrong the friction and saw dust will literally start a fire...its happened many times
Here’s a tip about using templates for pickups, especially Jazz bass pickups. You really can’t use a 1 to 1 template. The people that sell actual size templates are doing it wrong. The problem lies in the fact that the corners of the pickup have a very small radius, generally around 1/8” or 3/16”. You would need a pattern bit that same diameter. But they don’t exist. If you use the smallest pattern bit (top bearing), it’s generally going to be 1/2” in diameter. That means the smallest corner diameter you can cut is 1/2”. Then you have to go in with a Dremel or something. That’s a pain. Even StewMac does it wrong by requiring you to drill corner holes first. The proper way to do this is with a router baseplate that has a guide bushing collar. The way this works is you make your template over sized by adding an offset. To figure the offset, measure the outside diameter (OD) of the guide bushing tube and subtract the diameter of the bit. Next, divide this figure by 2 to determine the offset. For example, say you need an 1/8” bit for the corners… you would use a 1/8” straight bit. subtract the 1⁄8 " bit diameter from the bushing's 1⁄4 " OD. You get 1⁄8". Now divide this number by two and you arrive at a 1⁄16" offset. You might also use a 1/2” collar bushing. Just adjust the calculation. This way you’re using the proper size bit, but the guide bushing has a larger diameter. So the template is made bigger all around. Now it’s easy to get into the corners. I’ve been a luthier for 45 years and I’m always surprised no one does it this way. It’s common knowledge in the general woodworking trade. I have templates that fit over my bodies with all the pickup openings. Also control holes and neck pockets. It’s impossible to make a mistake. Making those patterns by hand was a chore! A CNC would be a godsend. I still don’t have one. 😁 Also your necks shouldn’t be that tight that you have to make an effort to press it in. When you get finish on it you can crack the wood.
a desktop cnc might work, i've been thinking about it myself, mine could do half a body at a time with a length extension and better spindle, it'd be about 300cdn including what i've already put into it, 180U$ or so and fit 1/8" carbide bits, cheap. next one up that's halfway decent and a guitar body size is close to 1500. the cheaper desktop cnc that's assembled from rails can be extended with a few new parts, so it might be a better choice, 50U$ for the machine, 75 for longer replacement parts when you've figured the kinks, decided if you want to even bother doing bodies that way... not that big a money pit to start.
I work as a cnc programmer and my advice is that you should not settle for these slow processes. I understand that hobby machines are not as fast as the professional ones, but as you gain experience your processes will get better. I’m waiting for your next video, because I’ve been thinking about getting a cnc router for making guitars at home, but all I could find were very expensive, but yours looks promising
I Have made guitars by hand router and my own templates for about three years even sold a few guitars. I have been thinking of going on the same adventure with CNC and have experience with graphic design software. The speed of cutting the body really never bothered me as much as constancy and accuracy being more of the reason. Its been my experience the better luthiers are in it for the love of creating a beautiful instrument that people will enjoy and learn from for years to come. Its a bonus to have free hands while your assistant helps. Thank you for posting the videos of your adventure the information has been helping me shape some of my own ideas and possibly the future.
Wow! This video answered basically every question I’ve had about integrating a small cnc into my shop that I’ve had. I want one for the exact same reasons you got it for. While routing by hand isn’t particularly time consuming it has a tendency to suck! Any small error can have large implications that need fixing and possible redesign. Eliminating that possibility of error can really speed up the whole process in the long run. I bet this thing pays itself off in 10 guitars or less just in the time it saves. It would be great if in the future you do a video walking through all the things you needed to do to get this thing set up and working right to help others just starting out so we don’t have to go through the same possibly lengthily trial and error process. Love you videos man! Always inspiring!
THIS is the video i've been looking for. I just bought a Masuter Pro and upgraded the spindle to a makita router. I am currently learning and hoping to build my own guitar body soon.
CNC is on my list of eventuals, especially since I have some skill with drafting and 3D modeling, but it's behind several other things that I need to build first. I would love to have one for making my router templates and possibly doing some inlay work.
I think what is said here is completely correct. This kind of machine is very much an item that requires skill to program correctly. As such expecting great results from the word go is unrealistic but once you have the skills down, you can definately reduce the amount of work you need to do and free yourself up to do other work. For a business that has a bunch of orders having multiple router setups would probably be a good way of speeding up production of a standard body shape without expanding the workforce. Now, if you could program one to make necks...
I have been thinking about a cnc machine for some time. I used to make templates for my guitar builds. Then I discovered Warmoth. You can buy a body blank with all the cavities routed out. All you have to do is cut out the shape you want. It does limit you as far as wood choices and the overall size of the body.
Man thank you for doing this video! I've been eye balling this unit for a month now trying to determine if it could handle the body designs I have in mind. 😂just finished my 2nd full build. 1st was a weird custom neck-through design. Kind of like a cross between an Explorer and a Steinberger. Longer skinny bottom forward horn, with recessed ass-end like modern headless like the Steinbergers. My second is a bolt-on mad melding of a Jackson Warrior and an Ibanez Xyphos. It's amazing how much work goes into building these things by hand. So, as much as I've enjoyed building them like this, I look forward to getting a cnc set up. Especially for the routing! Lol Anyway, looks like it'll handle small production runs just fine. I'm happy to see that. Looks like my wife is going to be mad at me soon! Because I am getting one of these asap! Haha. And I'm stoked about it! Thanks again!
Love the video! I just purchased a sienci longmill mostly for cabinet making, and my brother suggested I could make guitar blanks. Cool to see it happen!
Awesome 😊 Looks like you're well on the way to optimising your workflow! Bless you and many thanks for keeping your personal journey so informative and insightful for all of us👍
Can't wait for the full review!!! How great that you have been able to invest the time to help you get more time with the family!!! In the 90's I did a bunch of pantograph with and without computer interface engraving on different platforms and loved it! I never got to run laser engraving but still something I'd love to check out. I took a few machining courses in college and was very interested in CNC. After landing in cabinet shops started a little bit of training on point to point and full panel CNCs. Then moved onto CAD in the woodworking industry until my injury. Have always been fascinated with these machines! It will be great to see if these will be an option for me to tinker with! Thanks so much Dan!!! Enjoy your emerging FTM (Family Time Maker) development and appreciate your sharing with us!!!
Dan, your personal Double J Double J body looks amazing so far. Especially considering that a CNC made it, would've thought you did it normally. Keep up the great work.
Interesting that you put this video out when you did. I'm in the process of designing my own picks to machine on my dad's new CNC router, so seeing a video from someone i already watch regarding cost effective CNC is neat :)
I think I'd probably do the outside edges of the routing with the CNC machine, and then just take out most of the inside of those outlines with the hand router as it's so much faster and you don't have to worry about cutting into the wood you want left behind. And then maybe CNC to clean up the bottom of the neck pocket and pickup pockets. This is very impressive, thank you!
One time saving option may be to do the full pockets first on CNC, then make CNC just do a several mm depth outline of outer body. (2-3 passes) Then remove from CNC and jig saw the outer body fully by following that track line line. Some budget CNC machines just take forever and this would reduce the time to just focusing on the key depth and alignment of the pockets. A myth is that budget CNCs speed up carves. They actually just free up the worker to a degree , as long as they stay near the machine. (Youd want to me super confident to let it run all night also IMO)
I have the Masuter Pro and it's a great machine. I also bought the upgraded spindle and laser engraver/cutter options. I like the fact that it also comes stock with the Makita finish router bracket which makes that upgrade a cinch. I'd been wondering if I could use it to route guitar bodies, so thanks for letting me know it's eventually possible with a lot of trial and error. I'll definitely have to look into the expansion kit when it gets released.
Nice machine. Nice work. As your knowledge grows. You will be able to do the body styling on CNC as well Instead of bandsaw. All your bevels & rounding with 3D roughing ,f finishing passes. To get full size body carved. You can offset the angle diagonal on the CNC base will allow space to cuf the longer horn.
And dangerous 😮 jobs. I’ve been woodworking for 30 years and I’m still extremely respectful of routers; they are right up there with angle grinders as workshop weapons. I would be extremely happy to give away that job to a CNC.
Very cool. I often wonder how well thee hobby size CNC machines work and are the reviews being honest. I know I’ll get an honest answer when I watch this channel. Thanks 🙏
Yeah I think with most new tools or software the main thing is to learn what they can do how to make the software and machine do what you need it to do consistently and repeatably so you can have confidence in it enough to just let it work. Then you can do the things that the machine and software can't do or at least not without a lot more time tweaking to get it to do those things.
I'll be going through this same process soon. I'm ordering and Openbuilds Lead 1010 very soon. It's capable of doing two guitar bodies and two necks at the same time. Not that I'd do that. My hobbies are similar to yours guitars, guns and 3D printing and design. Great video as always.
Love it 🤙The body's look great and for me, someone who just wants to experiment with fun shapes and build, the cnc seems like the answer. This price makes that within reason. Thanks.
Your machine could produce several Steinberger-style (headless) one-piece (neck included) electric mandolins ( four string) from one slab of ebony! The tuners could be cut down from the ones available for six strings or use the outside tuning knobs for volume and tone controls...A leather belt holster would be a nice option!
All pockets on all guitars on the video can be machined in less than 5 minutes and in future You will able to do it on Masuter - its just all about expirience in CAM software a toolpath creating :)
As a hand surgeon, I appreciate that CNC reduces chances for injury to fingers because they are simply nowhere in the vicinity, unlike a shaper (even with all the crafty safety jigs you can try to rig up).
As a soon to be 3rd generation woodworker I can testify! Grandpa was a Master cabinet maker who left his thumb on a table saw at a client’s house. My Dad went into heavy construction carpentry & lost several fingertips… and his hearing. CNC looks much safer!!
Thanks for sharing, Dan. This video is really awesome. I will share this video to our FB community. Can't wait for watching your full review. Thumbs up!!!👍👍👍
the prob with that machine is it’s belt driven and eventually the belts get loose and tolerances suffer. if you wanna expand it just make longer rails and adjust the limit switches in the machine and in the software
If you learned 3D modeling and use a program like fusion 360, you could probably get the CNC to do a lot of the shaping and contouring work for you too.
This looks really interesting. I'm very curious about how this works and looking forward to the full review. And I would be really curious if it works on the type of guitar I'm building now.
Great video.. but.. if you get a 1,5Kw water cooled CNC spindle from ebay and better routerbits you can feed the CNC ALOT faster, i´ve done exactly the same thing with a very similar CNC and you will same alot of time when the CNC is working alot faster, also you should never leave the CNC because something can happen and the router bit can for some reason overheat and things can actually even start a fire or if the the router bit goes bad and get less sharp and dont make cuts as good anymore the CNC can break.. you should always be around the cnc to see and hear whats happening.. i used to make guitar bodys in less than 1 hour in mahogony and a stratocaster neck in 20 minutes because the right feeding speed is actually pretty fast when working with wood and having a water cooled spindle.. in your video i can see that the material the router bit is taking away or more like dust.. and thats not right..
The weak spot on this cnc isn’t the router, the makita router I put in it is far more capable than the machine allows. I’ll talk about this more in the full review, but the weakness of the setup is in the belt drive and stepper motors.
Hi. I bought the same model cnc few months ago thinking I can use it to build my guitars. I never really tried, but now that I see your video, I think I'm going to give it a try. What software are you using? Great video. Can't wait for more videos using the cnc. Thank you for sharing.
Hey sir, I enjoyed the video. Based on your suggestion I am looking at the step up to the 4040-Xe. however I noticed the Y axes is shorter than the Pro that you have. It's like 2.16" verses the 2.6 on the pro. I know it has stronger stepper motor, however. Is that height a deal breaker for a bass build?
You’re looking at the wrong machine. The original Masuter has the shorter Z depth. The 4040-XE actually has longer Z depth at 65mm vs the Masuter pro which has 60mm or the original Masuter that has 55mm
@@GunsandGuitars Active Working Area: 15.75 x 15.75 x 2.17 inch, someone posted a comparison on the user group. I also spoke with the company and they said they didn't have plans to add an extension kit. Is the 2.17 (55mm)the Z depth? I think the one you have has Active Working Area: 15.75” x 15.75” x 2.36” (400 x 400 x 60mm) and can not be upgraded to the Neme 23 stepper. Thanks for your help.
What software are you using to get your G code. To speed up your process you will have look at the step over amount and increase your inches per minute travel of your feed. I use easel and the default settings are to slow.
If it takes 3 hours just to cut out cavities, you're probably running up your electric bill considerably. I would imagine spending the extra money on a better and faster CNC would probably pay for itself in the long run to avoid those problems.
Do you make custom templates for customers? My ex got most of my wood working equipment in our divorce, even though she had no use for it. I am slowly rebuilding my tool inventory, but a good set of templates would go a LONG way.
Hey Dan, I have a question about templates. Would you happen to know any company or individuals who make custom templates? I’ve gotta few custom models of my own I’d like to build but I’ve noticed trying to build templates with hand tools (my current method of building) has its own slew of problems. Appreciate the awesome content as always!
OK.. so can this machine NOT carve out the belly cuts? The round over? Fret board? Fret slots? Or What about the neck curve? Seems to me, you have bought a $700 automatic pocket jig cutting device...? Short of that.. seems like you are only using 10% of this machines capabilities??? Would be interested to know.. thanks.
@@GunsandGuitars that's true!! Don't push your machine beyond his capabilities, I just find it weird because I have the same Makita router, but my rail system is different.
Learn your machines limits, then let it run at about 80% of those limits and let it run fast. If it costs you 1 router bit per guitar, include that in the price and it becomes worth it. Know your machines limits and try to push them.
All great advice except the part about leaving your cnc unattended while you slept and had family time. Never do this. There have been fires due to that very reason. Pause the machine when you have to leave it. Just saying.
You provided good information, but you spent too much time repeating that the full review will be in an upcoming video. In the end, you didn’t give enough time to answering your question- could it be used for a business.
You don't have to bandsaw the blank ahead of time. You can set a work coordinate system based on dowels or similar, mirrored along the centerline. Mill corresponding dowel holes in your spoil board, so you can work on the front and back from the same setup. Place the blank on the dowels, clamp down, run the back routing and a bit down the profile of the body. Flip it over on the same dowels, do the front and the rest of the profile leaving tabs to hold it.
Can you please send me the specs
of what youre doing so i can replicate\
@@2ndearthagepromotions There aren't really "specs" here, it's more the design principles for setting up a consistent workspace.
To start, having a set zero point allows for rapid stock flipping with minimal input. For example, if you consider most people will run parts like this on the bottom left of their router table, I would mill shallow flats on the X and Y faces of the spoilboard; or even better, add a board on top* that could become a reusable fixture. Once you have that X/Y set (and maybe Z depending on how you do tool height), move over a bit and set a centerline point for the body blank. From that C/L you would place two pairs of dowel pins milled into the surface, and also mill these through your blank, and each pair would be a different distance apart. For instance, the pair at the back are 10" apart, and the other pair are 12" apart (or whatever). This allows you to place the stock, run one side of the body, then flip it over and drop it onto the pins to automatically align the other side. Since the pins have different spacing, it's impossible to load the body backwards and have the neck edge placed where the tail is; a principle called Poka Yoke.
Once you have the workspace setup saved, you can place a blank into a common "stock" location, clamp it down and run it. Easiest workflow would be to clamp the piece by lining up the C/L of the stock onto the spoilboard, and run the backside of the body and also interpolate the dowel holes in the first operation. The dowel holes don't have to go through, just enough to get the pins in and allow the stock to sit flush.
*One advantage to adding a board is you can not only reuse, but move this fixture piece around the table. For instance, you might have a high priority job set up, but a tool breakage will make you wait for a day or two to wait for tools. If you have a repeating set of holes on your table, you could mill dowel pins in the back of the fixture to align it to the table. This would allow you to throw a body up anywhere you have free space, set the X/Y up on an unused work offset like G59 ( or whatever your software does to track multiple work offsets) and then run bodies while you wait. Or say you have a job that has downtime for inspection or gluing or something, run one step of that job, then start running a body while you do the inspection, then hop back on the first job when you're done. This is what we do on mills where we might have a vice on the left and a fixture plate on the right, each with a different work offset.
Hope that was clear enough, I'm drinking.
Thank you so much. You helped me a ton and I really appreciate you! @@whybag
What about doing slotting on fretboard? Great vid btw
you absolutely can NOT leave these machines running unattended while you sleep, when things go wrong the friction and saw dust will literally start a fire...its happened many times
Here’s a tip about using templates for pickups, especially Jazz bass pickups.
You really can’t use a 1 to 1 template. The people that sell actual size templates are doing it wrong.
The problem lies in the fact that the corners of the pickup have a very small radius, generally around 1/8” or 3/16”. You would need a pattern bit that same diameter. But they don’t exist. If you use the smallest pattern bit (top bearing), it’s generally going to be 1/2” in diameter. That means the smallest corner diameter you can cut is 1/2”. Then you have to go in with a Dremel or something. That’s a pain.
Even StewMac does it wrong by requiring you to drill corner holes first.
The proper way to do this is with a router baseplate that has a guide bushing collar. The way this works is you make your template over sized by adding an offset.
To figure the offset, measure the outside diameter (OD) of the guide bushing tube and subtract the diameter of the bit. Next, divide this figure by 2 to determine the offset.
For example, say you need an 1/8” bit for the corners… you would use a 1/8” straight bit. subtract the 1⁄8 " bit diameter from the bushing's 1⁄4 " OD. You get 1⁄8". Now divide this number by two and you arrive at a 1⁄16" offset.
You might also use a 1/2” collar bushing. Just adjust the calculation.
This way you’re using the proper size bit, but the guide bushing has a larger diameter. So the template is made bigger all around. Now it’s easy to get into the corners.
I’ve been a luthier for 45 years and I’m always surprised no one does it this way. It’s common knowledge in the general woodworking trade.
I have templates that fit over my bodies with all the pickup openings. Also control holes and neck pockets. It’s impossible to make a mistake.
Making those patterns by hand was a chore! A CNC would be a godsend. I still don’t have one. 😁
Also your necks shouldn’t be that tight that you have to make an effort to press it in. When you get finish on it you can crack the wood.
a desktop cnc might work, i've been thinking about it myself, mine could do half a body at a time with a length extension and better spindle, it'd be about 300cdn including what i've already put into it, 180U$ or so and fit 1/8" carbide bits, cheap. next one up that's halfway decent and a guitar body size is close to 1500. the cheaper desktop cnc that's assembled from rails can be extended with a few new parts, so it might be a better choice, 50U$ for the machine, 75 for longer replacement parts when you've figured the kinks, decided if you want to even bother doing bodies that way... not that big a money pit to start.
Completely agree with the offset calculation using guide bussing . But could you not also use a hinge corner chisel like WHITESIDE # 9600 ?
@@trinacria1956 sure, but why bother? That’s four extra steps. Make the template once and use it many times.
Good point
You can use a 1/4 flush trim router and run the shank against the template to get tight corners
I work as a cnc programmer and my advice is that you should not settle for these slow processes. I understand that hobby machines are not as fast as the professional ones, but as you gain experience your processes will get better. I’m waiting for your next video, because I’ve been thinking about getting a cnc router for making guitars at home, but all I could find were very expensive, but yours looks promising
Now I can't wait to see your video :D
I Have made guitars by hand router and my own templates for about three years even sold a few guitars.
I have been thinking of going on the same adventure with CNC and have experience with graphic design software.
The speed of cutting the body really never bothered me as much as constancy and accuracy being more of the reason.
Its been my experience the better luthiers are in it for the love of creating a beautiful instrument that people will enjoy and learn from for years to come.
Its a bonus to have free hands while your assistant helps.
Thank you for posting the videos of your adventure the information has been helping me shape some of my own ideas and possibly the future.
Wow! This video answered basically every question I’ve had about integrating a small cnc into my shop that I’ve had. I want one for the exact same reasons you got it for. While routing by hand isn’t particularly time consuming it has a tendency to suck! Any small error can have large implications that need fixing and possible redesign. Eliminating that possibility of error can really speed up the whole process in the long run. I bet this thing pays itself off in 10 guitars or less just in the time it saves. It would be great if in the future you do a video walking through all the things you needed to do to get this thing set up and working right to help others just starting out so we don’t have to go through the same possibly lengthily trial and error process. Love you videos man! Always inspiring!
My CNC is just for making templates. It's a pain that it takes "forever", but the time saved after the templates is done, is worth it.
THIS is the video i've been looking for. I just bought a Masuter Pro and upgraded the spindle to a makita router. I am currently learning and hoping to build my own guitar body soon.
CNC is on my list of eventuals, especially since I have some skill with drafting and 3D modeling, but it's behind several other things that I need to build first. I would love to have one for making my router templates and possibly doing some inlay work.
I think what is said here is completely correct. This kind of machine is very much an item that requires skill to program correctly. As such expecting great results from the word go is unrealistic but once you have the skills down, you can definately reduce the amount of work you need to do and free yourself up to do other work. For a business that has a bunch of orders having multiple router setups would probably be a good way of speeding up production of a standard body shape without expanding the workforce. Now, if you could program one to make necks...
I have been thinking about a cnc machine for some time. I used to make templates for my guitar builds. Then I discovered Warmoth. You can buy a body blank with all the cavities routed out. All you have to do is cut out the shape you want. It does limit you as far as wood choices and the overall size of the body.
Great Videos man! Can you share what dust shoe are you using? and where can I buy one please!
Absolutely love seeing you learn brother, only hope I have helped answer some of your questions.
Man thank you for doing this video! I've been eye balling this unit for a month now trying to determine if it could handle the body designs I have in mind. 😂just finished my 2nd full build. 1st was a weird custom neck-through design. Kind of like a cross between an Explorer and a Steinberger. Longer skinny bottom forward horn, with recessed ass-end like modern headless like the Steinbergers. My second is a bolt-on mad melding of a Jackson Warrior and an Ibanez Xyphos. It's amazing how much work goes into building these things by hand. So, as much as I've enjoyed building them like this, I look forward to getting a cnc set up. Especially for the routing! Lol Anyway, looks like it'll handle small production runs just fine. I'm happy to see that. Looks like my wife is going to be mad at me soon! Because I am getting one of these asap! Haha. And I'm stoked about it! Thanks again!
Love the video! I just purchased a sienci longmill mostly for cabinet making, and my brother suggested I could make guitar blanks. Cool to see it happen!
LOOKS LIKE THE BEST LOW PRICED OUT THERE !!!
Awesome 😊 Looks like you're well on the way to optimising your workflow! Bless you and many thanks for keeping your personal journey so informative and insightful for all of us👍
This has been on my mind. The speed is slow, but the hands-off repeatability looks like it's really nice.
Can't wait for the full review!!!
How great that you have been able to invest the time to help you get more time with the family!!! In the 90's I did a bunch of pantograph with and without computer interface engraving on different platforms and loved it! I never got to run laser engraving but still something I'd love to check out. I took a few machining courses in college and was very interested in CNC. After landing in cabinet shops started a little bit of training on point to point and full panel CNCs. Then moved onto CAD in the woodworking industry until my injury. Have always been fascinated with these machines! It will be great to see if these will be an option for me to tinker with! Thanks so much Dan!!! Enjoy your emerging FTM (Family Time Maker) development and appreciate your sharing with us!!!
Dan, your personal Double J Double J body looks amazing so far. Especially considering that a CNC made it, would've thought you did it normally. Keep up the great work.
Interesting that you put this video out when you did. I'm in the process of designing my own picks to machine on my dad's new CNC router, so seeing a video from someone i already watch regarding cost effective CNC is neat :)
I think I'd probably do the outside edges of the routing with the CNC machine, and then just take out most of the inside of those outlines with the hand router as it's so much faster and you don't have to worry about cutting into the wood you want left behind.
And then maybe CNC to clean up the bottom of the neck pocket and pickup pockets.
This is very impressive, thank you!
One time saving option may be to do the full pockets first on CNC, then make CNC just do a several mm depth outline of outer body. (2-3 passes) Then remove from CNC and jig saw the outer body fully by following that track line line. Some budget CNC machines just take forever and this would reduce the time to just focusing on the key depth and alignment of the pockets. A myth is that budget CNCs speed up carves. They actually just free up the worker to a degree , as long as they stay near the machine. (Youd want to me super confident to let it run all night also IMO)
What are the best bits to cut out your guitar body, and what rpm/speed do you set your trim router on.
Thanks for sHring
Cool stuff Dan ,those bodies are looking good...
I'd love to learn more about this, looking forward to future videos
I have the Masuter Pro and it's a great machine. I also bought the upgraded spindle and laser engraver/cutter options.
I like the fact that it also comes stock with the Makita finish router bracket which makes that upgrade a cinch.
I'd been wondering if I could use it to route guitar bodies, so thanks for letting me know it's eventually possible with a lot of trial and error.
I'll definitely have to look into the expansion kit when it gets released.
Great video and timing as well, I've been on the fence as far as getting a CNC for the same projects. Thanks!
Nice machine. Nice work. As your knowledge grows. You will be able to do the body styling on CNC as well Instead of bandsaw. All your bevels & rounding with 3D roughing ,f finishing passes. To get full size body carved. You can offset the angle diagonal on the CNC base will allow space to cuf the longer horn.
Great video. I've been following since you first started mag-dumping shotguns into trash ;-)
Love the new direction, man.
The CNC handles the part you don’t want to do, the mundane repetitive routing, and allows you to do the more creation e stuff. My answer is yes.
And dangerous 😮 jobs. I’ve been woodworking for 30 years and I’m still extremely respectful of routers; they are right up there with angle grinders as workshop weapons. I would be extremely happy to give away that job to a CNC.
Nice. I’d like the machine to do the chords, so I can chug away on palm mutes
Very cool. I often wonder how well thee hobby size CNC machines work and are the reviews being honest. I know I’ll get an honest answer when I watch this channel. Thanks 🙏
Just what I was looking for
Thanks 😊
Yeah I think with most new tools or software the main thing is to learn what they can do how to make the software and machine do what you need it to do consistently and repeatably so you can have confidence in it enough to just let it work. Then you can do the things that the machine and software can't do or at least not without a lot more time tweaking to get it to do those things.
I'll be going through this same process soon. I'm ordering and Openbuilds Lead 1010 very soon. It's capable of doing two guitar bodies and two necks at the same time. Not that I'd do that. My hobbies are similar to yours guitars, guns and 3D printing and design. Great video as always.
Love it 🤙The body's look great and for me, someone who just wants to experiment with fun shapes and build, the cnc seems like the answer. This price makes that within reason. Thanks.
Your machine could produce several Steinberger-style (headless) one-piece (neck included) electric mandolins ( four string) from one slab of ebony! The tuners could be cut down from the ones available for six strings or use the outside tuning knobs for volume and tone controls...A leather belt holster would be a nice option!
...and of course integral Bluetooth and wrist strap so you could do all those fancy spinning cowboy quick draws! LOL
Great video, I too want to learn CNC for guitars and will likely take a similar approach!
Hartley Peavey started with something similar when he got into instrument building.
All pockets on all guitars on the video can be machined in less than 5 minutes and in future You will able to do it on Masuter - its just all about expirience in CAM software a toolpath creating :)
dang why haven't I heard of this channel 2 of my favorite things guns and guitars
As a hand surgeon, I appreciate that CNC reduces chances for injury to fingers because they are simply nowhere in the vicinity, unlike a shaper (even with all the crafty safety jigs you can try to rig up).
As a soon to be 3rd generation woodworker I can testify! Grandpa was a Master cabinet maker who left his thumb on a table saw at a client’s house. My Dad went into heavy construction carpentry & lost several fingertips… and his hearing. CNC looks much safer!!
Very cool, I've wanted one for inlays and templates
You're awesome Dan! I love your channel! Love your videos! Keep em' coming! Subscribed with the bell!
What kind of woods are you using this video for your guitar bodies?
We’ll, now I’m starting to get the itch to buy one.
Thanks for sharing, Dan. This video is really awesome. I will share this video to our FB community. Can't wait for watching your full review. Thumbs up!!!👍👍👍
Thanks!
the prob with that machine is it’s belt driven and eventually the belts get loose and tolerances suffer. if you wanna expand it just make longer rails and adjust the limit switches in the machine and in the software
thanks for sharing! a friend of mine has a Shapeoko CNC in his garage just sitting around I've thought about trying to use for cavity routing >_>
At 3:55.. when you flipped that template… i see a bitchin thunderbird type design just waiting to be released!!
How on earth did you reach even this point. Really great stuff. Very inspiring especially to a keyboard player
If you learned 3D modeling and use a program like fusion 360, you could probably get the CNC to do a lot of the shaping and contouring work for you too.
Awesome build
That's pretty cool
... the price has come down to reality window for regular people
routing is my favorite part
I use my CNC for templates, inlays, engravings, stamps, brands and more of the details
I’ve used a drill press with an end mill cutter, also a dremel (but I wouldn’t do that again…)
NICE WORK ,,, GOOD INFO
This looks really interesting. I'm very curious about how this works and looking forward to the full review.
And I would be really curious if it works on the type of guitar I'm building now.
I have a ton of experience with hobby cnc's. if you have any questions feel free to reach out. the right tooling will make a world of difference
Thanks Kenny!
Great video.. but.. if you get a 1,5Kw water cooled CNC spindle from ebay and better routerbits you can feed the CNC ALOT faster, i´ve done exactly the same thing with a very similar CNC and you will same alot of time when the CNC is working alot faster, also you should never leave the CNC because something can happen and the router bit can for some reason overheat and things can actually even start a fire or if the the router bit goes bad and get less sharp and dont make cuts as good anymore the CNC can break.. you should always be around the cnc to see and hear whats happening.. i used to make guitar bodys in less than 1 hour in mahogony and a stratocaster neck in 20 minutes because the right feeding speed is actually pretty fast when working with wood and having a water cooled spindle.. in your video i can see that the material the router bit is taking away or more like dust.. and thats not right..
The weak spot on this cnc isn’t the router, the makita router I put in it is far more capable than the machine allows. I’ll talk about this more in the full review, but the weakness of the setup is in the belt drive and stepper motors.
Could you give a link to the milling cutter you use to plan the surfaces?
That's awesome I'm glad it's working out.! Dumb question what's holding down bass and partical board?
That’s a little trick I’ll share with you in my full review 😉
so can you make a guitar neck on this machine ? is it big enough ?
Can you build necks too with this?
i had i really small place, cnc its like a kitchen table and cant replace many bench tools
three hours for one body? did you set the right feed rate?
When I try to go faster it would carve off path. The machine isn’t very strong.
I want a Thompson short scale 6 string bass
Hi. I bought the same model cnc few months ago thinking I can use it to build my guitars. I never really tried, but now that I see your video, I think I'm going to give it a try. What software are you using? Great video. Can't wait for more videos using the cnc. Thank you for sharing.
Would a scalloped but fret-less bass fingerboard be the best of both worlds?
can you do a comparison about bass necks? mahogany neck with maple fretboard VS maple neck with rosewood fretboard
Just confirming, the body shape was also cut out using the cnc? If so how long to cut out the body?
Hey sir, I enjoyed the video. Based on your suggestion I am looking at the step up to the 4040-Xe. however I noticed the Y axes is shorter than the Pro that you have. It's like 2.16" verses the 2.6 on the pro. I know it has stronger stepper motor, however. Is that height a deal breaker for a bass build?
You’re looking at the wrong machine. The original Masuter has the shorter Z depth. The 4040-XE actually has longer Z depth at 65mm vs the Masuter pro which has 60mm or the original Masuter that has 55mm
@@GunsandGuitars Active Working Area: 15.75 x 15.75 x 2.17 inch, someone posted a comparison on the user group. I also spoke with the company and they said they didn't have plans to add an extension kit. Is the 2.17 (55mm)the Z depth? I think the one you have has Active Working Area: 15.75” x 15.75” x 2.36” (400 x 400 x 60mm) and can not be upgraded to the Neme 23 stepper. Thanks for your help.
What software are you using to get your G code. To speed up your process you will have look at the step over amount and increase your inches per minute travel of your feed. I use easel and the default settings are to slow.
I use easel as well
Will this cnc engrave on 1/4" acrylic?
What software are you using?
Absolutely no problem
I’m using easel for software
Do you if the fox alien will run off of lightburn software?@GunsandGuitars
Fantástic Man 🇧🇷
Do you use a thickness planer in your work flow?
I use a router sled, but that’s another thing I’ll talk about in the full review is using the cnc as a flattener
Hey brother, are you planning in the near future to make your own pickups too, either for bass or electric guitar?
I would love to try it!
If it takes 3 hours just to cut out cavities, you're probably running up your electric bill considerably. I would imagine spending the extra money on a better and faster CNC would probably pay for itself in the long run to avoid those problems.
Do you make custom templates for customers? My ex got most of my wood working equipment in our divorce, even though she had no use for it. I am slowly rebuilding my tool inventory, but a good set of templates would go a LONG way.
Hey Dan, I have a question about templates. Would you happen to know any company or individuals who make custom templates? I’ve gotta few custom models of my own I’d like to build but I’ve noticed trying to build templates with hand tools (my current method of building) has its own slew of problems. Appreciate the awesome content as always!
What software did you decide to use?
I’ll talk about this morning in the full review, but for now I’m using easel
OK.. so can this machine NOT carve out the belly cuts? The round over? Fret board? Fret slots? Or What about the neck curve? Seems to me, you have bought a $700 automatic pocket jig cutting device...? Short of that.. seems like you are only using 10% of this machines capabilities??? Would be interested to know.. thanks.
That's kind of long time for pockets and contour, I believe your feeds and speeds are a little slow.
You’re welcome to push yours harder, I just know whenever I did it would jump off track
@@GunsandGuitars that's true!! Don't push your machine beyond his capabilities, I just find it weird because I have the same Makita router, but my rail system is different.
I think you are going to find out that the cnc can do almost all of the operations you are trying to accomplish with exception to the wire holes😉
Very cool.
How can I request a custom guitar??
how do i contact you to commission a bass?
Learn your machines limits, then let it run at about 80% of those limits and let it run fast. If it costs you 1 router bit per guitar, include that in the price and it becomes worth it. Know your machines limits and try to push them.
IDK but working by hand is all part of the craftsmen process unless your shipping out ALOT of guitars no need for a cnc machine imo
I agree. Two reasons to have a cnc 1) to increase production 2) to do things you can’t do without a cnc (things that require serious precision, etc)
Dude I need to learn how to use my CNC 😢 i want to make a guitar or bass
Yeah bro, I have actual construction jobsites that are closed down, cause we can't get sealant SEALANT FOR GOD SAKE
Cool!
I would like to know the approach you took to learning the CNC to get you to where you are? How did you go about it?
Honestly? Lots of TH-cam videos!
@@GunsandGuitars I asked it incorrectly, and not sure how to. Sorry about that.
I visited the Warwick custom shop factory. The cnc routers there aren’t faster.
Does guns and guitars pin early birds?!?!
All great advice except the part about leaving your cnc unattended while you slept and had family time. Never do this. There have been fires due to that very reason. Pause the machine when you have to leave it. Just saying.
Tell the facts
I thought sanding was your least favorite part
Yeah…they don’t have cnc machines that do that yet…or else I would have one!
You provided good information, but you spent too much time repeating that the full review will be in an upcoming video. In the end, you didn’t give enough time to answering your question- could it be used for a business.
Sure, why not? You ain't exactly chasing tenths here.
Woooow!!!!!!!!!