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As far as bit profiles, I have lots of router bits, but these are practically useless
on the copy carver router, because you can't use flat bottom or round nose bits
(don't know why..but I will find out). What the fish carver and designer of the
copy carver is suggesting is using special bits/stylus that he sells through a
third party. I bought one set to find out what it's all about, since I'm green to
this copy carver world..but I'm learning fast. In any case, I do have some
unique bits made by Kutzall which are carving burrs (not router bits) which
I can use..I just need to make my own accurate stylus(es) for them from
lead weights on a steel shaft. There are two grades of Kutzall..the gold
which is a fine cutter and the sliver series which is more aggressive.
The cutters have numerous tiny carbide teeth and not as prone to loading up,
but when they do..I just put them in boiling water to clear the wood particles
out of the teeth and I'm good to go.
Jay, I've built some of my "custom" Les Paul types and after the first one,
I deviated to a neck through semil-hollow body.. because I play acoustic and
electric jazz guitars (Epiphone currently..can't afford a Gibson as they say)..
but I found that for each one, I preferred to custom carve the "one-off" neck
and the next one was slightly different because I wanted it that way.
Now if you are doing more than one (neck) then a copy carver can save a lot of
time. At first I was buying Gibson scale FB from Stew_Mac, but now that
I've come up with my own FB duplicator..I don't need to order preslotted FB
from S_M any more. I can machine my own blanks and slot them.
I've been using Guitar Fetish p_ups in all of my guitars because they are much
cheaper and actually sound not half bad..at least some of the models I've used.
As far as inlays, I do my own on my customs, but I use my handheld micromotor with a special cutter bit (from S-M) to make the depression for the
MOP (Mother of Pearl) shapes.
5 axis Bob? "Splain please.
Yes Bob, Crafts "people" is exactly what the factory workers are. While the factory
probably has a couple of luthiers to do the finished areas. these are production
models "ES" types from the ES-175 hollowbody jazz model to the thinline
ES-335 series. The custom shop, of course has their highest level luthiers that
can create a customized model of your choosing..for a fancy price of course.
Yeah, that is the issue with cnc, software. designing and cutting a neck in 3d, takes a lot of time, the neck I made was done 2d, with different profile bits, which makes it relatively quick to cut, but you are limeted to the profile of the bits. The inlays on my fret board were actually cut on my laser engraver, and that is really sweet for that process, because there is no issue with "holding" parts.
I really like your pickups by the way. If you look at my most recent build, the "Cymbitar", I was thinking it might be cool to have one of yours for a neck pickup. Got any cool ideas that would go with the theme?
Bob; when I visited Gibson (Memphis) in 2007, I went on a tour of the prodiction
facilities for the guitar models they make there and very interested in the way
they did their necks. I saw a QUAD neck copier that will carve up to 4 neck blanks
at a time down to roughly 90% as this is Gibson afterall and production time is
worth a lot of money..anyway, I was told that after the necks were machine
carved, they were picked up by skillled production craftspeople (not luthiers),
and finished carved/sanded by hand to their satisfaction and quality control
before being glued onto the bodies.
I've completed my copy carver and for the time being pleased with it.
Today, I'm adding a wooden knob to the stylus so I have more precision control
of the stylus as the swing box tends to get a bit "swingy" if you know what I mean.
I like the idea, but so far it has cost me about 3 times what he mentioned in his
plans, but this is Canada after all, and we are used to paying more for everything.
My current challenge is to come up with a spiffy indexing mount for both
the blank and the cast. I'm sure that routing the excess wood won't take more
than 4-5 minutes per 90 degree quadrant. So it shouldn't take more than
20 minutes to come up with a rough carving not including setup time (mounting)
and indexing.
I can't seem to edit the typos in my last comment.
carver should read carve
35000 should read 35,000 rpm
These are dentist style handheld electric precision motors that allow very fine
detail, similar to the air operated dentist drill that allows for very fine cavity
drilling. As a matter of fact, I just got my first micromotor rebuilt with new
bearings after many years of use by a "handpiece center" that overhauls this
89,000 rpm dental drills as well.
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