# Weekend Guitar Project **URL:** \ **Category:** Projects\ **Tags:** plasma-project\ **Created:** [April 12, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://forum.avidcnc.com/t/weekend-guitar-project/3142 "2024-04-12T23:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![da-kengineer-meister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f1d935/32.png) [@da-kengineer-meister](https://forum.avidcnc.com/u/da-kengineer-meister)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://forum.avidcnc.com/t/weekend-guitar-project/3142/1 "2024-04-12T23:50:32Z")
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a project, lots going on, but not much to interest others. (lots of repeat work, etc.) I was approached by a gentleman looking to make a few different styles of custom guitar. He had been struggling with an older CNC router at a makerspace up here near Mukeltieo/Everett. These two “practice parts” were knocked out of some cut down pine 2x6’s as test articles, to prove out the CAD models and the G-Code and let him do some fit checks, etc… The CAD files were able to be imported into the legacy CAD software I am using (\*.IGES files) From there I was able to break it down and determine how I would work-hold it which order of operations I wanted and then start working on the G-Code. ![q_20240407_145312](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/b/b26c96d21bd332a2bcfd105a2831afb4b449092a.jpeg) After that it was out to the garage to fire up the AVIDcnc in spindle mode. ![q_20240407_153719](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/7/7f28a226a8b7226241549c8175f7e8a738dad225.jpeg) I’ve got a 2ft x 2ft chunk of MDF clamped down on top of the regular spoil board that I’ve used for a handful of different projects. I flattened a small section of it but just with a few skim cuts know i’m going to be cutting down into it a little bit given the way I wrote the G-Code. ![q_20240407_165012](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/3/3bd7192a16439927178f193751281402f2717590.jpeg) On the front side I screwed down the boards around the perhipery and used a ball end mill to drive in a pocket to the recessed flat that will later become the head sctock. With the 1/4-ball end mill still loaded I dropped in some holes for alignment pegs that will be used when the part is flipped over. While I was at it, I dropped in the long slot for the truss rod and circle drove the holes for the tuning hardware. ![q_20240407_182121](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/8/81c46990e3456d72e95fb1823d02235d106e450a.jpeg) With that done the part was flipped and 4pieces of 1/4in wooden dowel were used to align it back to the machine and 4-wood screws were used to hold it done. With the snug fit from the wooden dowels, likely the wood screws weren’t needed, but I went ahead and used them since they were right there from having been used for the top side of the part. With the part flipped, located and secured, I went ahead and cut a planform around the entire perhipery of the part leaving 8x tabs. I used much larger tabs that were needed but this pine wasn’t that great, so no harm done and it all worked out. When I go back to do this in hardwood, I’ll likely shrink those tabs down. The CAD system I use is old enough it has no concept of TABs so those have to be modeled in as sepeate features and special provisions made when wrting the G-Code. ![q_20240408_173759](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/d/dad4cc018440b3456de2323eb90deb15ff6fbeed.jpeg) Since the next step requires a ball end-mill, I went ahead and cut the planform passes above with the same ball end tool and just let the tip dive into the spoil board an 1/8 of an inch. And lastly the back of each neck was sculpted with the same 1/4in ball endmill. ![q_20240408_191451](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/a/add6e116aaefc02ff148a6af76642fa13871954a.jpeg) These turned out pretty great. One of the two (the one in the back in the photo below) has a couple dog-bites where I was dialing things in and having a small dissagreement with the post processor, but the 2nd one is reasonably spot on. Both will work for fit-check parts. ![q_20240410_113357](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/avidcnc/original/2X/c/c13c729f09380ca4edff6583af7d9c405d93a0d5.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![wbegg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85e7bf/32.png) [@wbegg](https://forum.avidcnc.com/u/wbegg)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.avidcnc.com/t/weekend-guitar-project/3142/2 "2024-05-29T17:36:12Z")
Awesome. This is EXACTLY how I used to do my guitar necks if I’m doing a glue-on fretboard. You may have just convinced me to get back into guitar building. ---
**Author:** ![DavidsPostProcessor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@DavidsPostProcessor](https://forum.avidcnc.com/u/DavidsPostProcessor)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://forum.avidcnc.com/t/weekend-guitar-project/3142/3 "2024-08-09T23:41:30Z")
Great project! I want the satisfaction of building my own guitar (to play poorly) but I think I’d stop after the carving stage. I lack the focus to do all the fiddly bits with the specialized tools. Besides, more time to play with Amplitube!