I run a small boutique guitar shop on in the coastal city of Goderich.
A good year ago I bought a used Longmill MK2 30x30 from a gentleman whose health was failing him. The CNC sat in my partners garage with minimal use because life can get busy. The good news is that it will be coming to me now and that’s exciting.
I have CarveCo Maker but am cutting my teeth on Fusion 360 which I really like a lot.
I’m working from my MacBook Air for design but have my Dell laptop ready with gSender.
Welcome to what I call the dungeon. I bet the longmill will make a great tool in your shop.
Are you going to make bodies with it or fretboards and that kind of stuf?
Have you seen the guitar making tutorial Sienci put out a while ago (not the altmill carving a aluminum one but the more classic electric guitar? I bet there’s some great tips “n” tick in there for ya, eventhough it is done in vectric.
Danm, didn’t realise it were so many. Anyhow, thought I put em out here, just in case.
Yes! I have seen your videos which are very well done. Lighthearted and fun.
I’ll be doing my headstock faceplates, fingerboard and inlays as well as bodies, both flat top and carve top. Eventually I’ll get tp top plates for jazz type models. I have 8 models now.
Hey Eddie, that’s cool. Glad it got your attention. I do the Elmira Vintage Guitar Show in Elmira every April.
This is my newest model, the Odeum LP. It’s a carve top but will be after I get my feel soaking wet with Fusion360 although I’ve been able to build a few models with tool paths in the last couple days. My Sherwood Classic is a tele inspired model so it’s pretty easy.
I thought I’d give you an update. The CNC is coming this Saturday and I have been geeking out on 3D stuff. I was having real issues with lofting in Fusion 360 and found this nice program and put together a 3D model very quickly. Itwont do tool paths but I can import them into Carveco.
I still need to go through a full tool path setup, I’m sure Im missing stuff.
The program is Plasicity and is very intuitive for me.
Here’s a shot of the finished TP. When I get closer I know I’ll have questions about full relief as opposed to inner or outer paths and the error I get with Raster Classic. Lot’s of time though.
The cnc arrived late Sunday night. I’ve been taking time throughout my busy day to install the cnc to the table. I doubled up the 4x4 to add rigidity.
You can hear the funny vibration in the video. it may be due to the wheels not fully set.
I have a massive assortment of bits, like 100- 0.6mm bits for fret slots. Will need to order the HOG 1-3/4" bit.
I attached a vid showing the latest cnc test.
I am tweaking the V Wheels but man they are touchy, Why Sienci didn’t make the upper wheels fixed and did that for the lower wheels makes me scratch my head.
I’ll be adding T Channels as well. Everything is functioning as it should. Will have a test carve by the weekend I think.
I won’t need bits for awhile. As to that sound in the middle that’s what I’m going to figure out. It’s only on the left rail. The tweaking I have don’t since that video has gotten better but not 100% yet.
You said that you had an MK2 comming in your original post, but it looks like it’s an MK1. Not that it matters much, but if you ever need parts, it might come in handy to know what machine you have.
I am in awe with the amount of bits you have. Did you already had a CNC or do/did you use these bits with more traditional routing table?
Also… Is that yellow one an S-bit? You might be able to use that one for surfacing, if you have no dedicated one lying around.
Mine has 22mm of flat milling capacity, just as wide as my surfacing but.
Yes my mistake it is a MK1. We bought it used for 1000. My partner is in TO which is where it’s been this whole year so he kept ordering bits. LOL There are a few SienciLabs bits there too.
The fret slot bits are a cheaper set so he got many.
This is my first go. So far so good. There’s a laser kit here too but I’ll get that in time.
A little more tweaking to go, I get the concentric nuts for the upper wheels, makes sense.
