This arrived today.
The cutting bed is 550mm x 350mm, which is handily big enough for a guitar body!
Well, that's lucky ....
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
@tv101 Oh cool, a guitar printer. 😁👍
I will invest in one at some point.
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Nice, does it come with pre-programmed learning curves.
Nice, does it come with pre-programmed learning curves.
They all appear to be vertical!
Trying to get my head around a whole new bunch of software to get the thing to actually do something ...
It might be a while before the first guitar appears.
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
Wow. Impressive
@Russ - I think the impressive aspect will mainly be the impressive number of opportunities that this presents for making new and exciting cock-ups in the workshop.
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
making new and exciting cock-ups
Nice looking machine TV!
And don't forget accurate! They will be the most accurate mistakes you have ever made and if you keep pressing the button you can make them over and over again!! 🤣 🤣 🤣
At least you should finish a build with all you fingers intact, you will just have sore hands from all the computer button pressing same as me.
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.
They will be the most accurate mistakes you have ever made and if you keep pressing the button you can make them over and over again!!
Thank you Darren @darrenking.
It's been a bit of a learning curve this afternoon!
My next job is to order some new cutters (some old, still serviceable ones came with the machine) and enter all their specs into the CAD package.
Currently, I'm making something, but had no idea re the cutter specs, so I'm probably taking way more passes than I need, and quite possibly with a cutter way to big for the detail I'm expecting ...
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
you will just have sore hands from all the computer button pressing same as me.
I'm hoping to just design a few pieces @rocknroller912, and then make them over and over and over again, in different timbers.
Of course, that's not actually going to happen, and I'll just spend more time in my office driving a mouse than I will in the workshop fighting a router!!
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
Quick question: can it do cushions and curtains too?!?
What, are you my wife too now @Mattbeels???
Yes, of course it can do cushions and curtains - they're just a bit wooden.
🤣
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
My next job is to order some new cutters
Hi TV, Hopefully you've got 6mm and/or 1/4" collet and 3.2mm (1/8") collets. I would suggest using the 6mm Wealden spirals for cut out and clearance operations and a 6mm ball nose for final shaping cuts when machining 3D shapes. I wouldn't try taking a cut deeper than the diameter of the cutter with small spirals, especially if you end up machining ebony or rosewood, and ordering cutter with the least depth of cut will help reduce any possible chatter. The ball nose cutter will rarely be taking more than a 1.5mm-2mm cut per pass so there is less to think about other than rpm, plunge and feed speeds. I am not sure what information your Aspire post processor transfers in the toolpath file for your CNC controller so it could be that all of the rpm and feed rates are set directly on the router rather than being dictated by the a parameters within Apsire.
You can pick up some really good deals on 1/8" and 6mm solid carbide ball nose cutters (and drill bits) on ebay. They take a while to arrive but they are superb value for money.
There is also this rather neat set of solid carbide carving burrs that fit a Dremel.
And you thought buying the machine was going to be the expensive part 🤣 🤣 🤣
Cheers @darrenking
Ive got 3mm, 4mm, 6mm and 1/4” collets.
Any idea whether 3mm is close enough to 1/8” to be interchangeable??
My first project completed, but it took a little longer than I’d hoped. Not wanting to over-burden the cutter, I set it to take 10 passes in cutting a 1.5mm depth, using a 3mm bullnose. It made some very fine sawdust!
I’d invested time in making the model, and not enough time in defining the cutters and thinking about depths, etc.
The laptop in the picture is *just* used to run Mach3 and send the job to the CNC controllers. It’s an old machine, but could probably handle a bit more work. I might try it with Freecad for some components, if not full bodies. Mach 3 controls the controller - I’m using Aspire to generate the model and create the G-Code which Mach 3 then loads.
There may well be better ways of running it - I’m just using it “as-is” whilst I learn some of the options.
Thanks for the links to the cutters. I normally assume “too good to be true” on stuff like that, but I’ll gladly accept your recommendation at those prices!
I foresee a long and steep learning curve ahead ....
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
Any idea whether 3mm is close enough to 1/8” to be interchangeable
Hi TV, it depends a little on the construction of the collet but it is more likely that a 1'8" collet could successfully take a 3mm cutter than the other way around ie you can tighten them up more than you can stretch them out. Collets shouldn't cost more than about £10 so I'd just order one of the correct size. They are an item that you need to replace on a reasonably regular basis as a worn collet will cause poor cut quality and, more importantly, increased wear and broken cutters. I tend to use new collets for cutting operations and then, after while, demote them to being used for drilling functions where there is little or no side loading.
I'd think that your 3mm cutter would be pretty happy to take at least 0.5mm-1mm per pass with a step over of 0.5-1mm depending on rpm and feed speed. This will give you a pretty accurately cut surface that will require very little hand finishing and plenty of time to make tea and get on with other things.
It’s an old machine, but could probably handle a bit more work.
Sending GCode data to a CNC controller is a bit like asking Marvin to open and shut doors! You could probably run your router from an MSDOS machine form the 80's if you had one! Seriously, it's just pumping out a long string of numbers, it doesn't have to 'think' about any of it! My router, and CNC hot wire cutter are controlled from old IBM PCs running Windows XP!