The League of Extraordinary Luthiers - Thanks TB!

[Reticle]

Originally Posted by Beauchene Implements

Nice. What model? Can't wait to see what you do with it!

It's a 30x36 Viper XZ and I'm soooooo ready to start cutting with it! Your Raptor build thread planted the seed for this new obsession.

[Phil Mailloux]

Impressive work so far guys, MrArose, wow, you sir are way more patient than I am, great work

[Beauchene Implements]

Got a little bit of work done last night.

Milled a mega-fretboard toolbed, and added index pins for the two-pass operation this beast requires:





Set up, clamped down, files loaded, let's do this.



Cocobolo dust bothers me, but if bothers my wife more. Since I work in the furnace room, I had to chase the ball mill with the shop vac for a little over an hour:



This is what we have after the first pass.



Flipped to mill the back end:



Here comes the part where we see how well it lines up. Suspense:



Good to go.



Bridge end is about 10/1000" lower than fretboard end, more than I wanted, I haven't aligned my machine's x axis in about a year though, I guess it's time. This is around what would be the 36th 'fret' though, way down on the body, so it shouldn't matter. I will sand it out to near imperceptibility.

Next I drilled a 1/32" hole for each dot position.





I will open these up with a forstner bit, I was going to use 1/4" dots but those might be too big. Maybe 1/4" for the 'dot' positions, and 1/8" for the other positions. The tool marks look deep here; it is just the lighting, they are only 2 or 3 thousandths deep. A few passes with the cabinet scraper and they're gone.

So after all the machine was done, we have this.




Kind of anticlimatic, I suppose. What you don't see is how much work goes into getting the models and toolpaths tweaked just right. I enjoyed this little exercise. I'll drill the dots, sand it out, and get it out to MusicLogic real soon.

[jmorbita]

Wow!!! looks really nice, good job!

[Musiclogic]

Nice Job Adam...really cool to see

[Reticle]

Looks awesome. Where did you get the bellows covers for your Y rails?

[Alexander Eddy]

Originally Posted by Beauchene Implements

Kind of anticlimatic, I suppose. What you don't see is how much work goes into getting the models and toolpaths tweaked just right. I enjoyed this little exercise. I'll drill the dots, sand it out, and get it out to MusicLogic real soon.

Not anti-climatic at all, Adam! I'm a class A nerd when it comes to stuff like this.

I sincerely appreciate the work and good will.

Thank you.

Your name has been added to the long list of men to whom I owe a beer (or 100)

[Musiclogic]

Vic Blue or RedBack here....Thanks....LMFAO

[Alexander Eddy]

Originally Posted by Musiclogic

Vic Blue or RedBack here....Thanks....LMFAO

JC, I owe you a bloody brewery!

[mikebpeters]

I'm paying extra close attention as I will have all the parts for a CNC router in a month or two. The learning curve to figure out the CAD/CAM aspects will be huge though. I think I will start with a 'normal' fretboard as perhaps the easiest single thing to start with.

Wonderful work!

[Beauchene Implements]

Reticle: I made those! PM me your email address, I'll send you some stuff on how to do it. You'll realize real quick that they are necessary.

Alex: Glad you like! I remember XXXX fondly, from the last time I visited Oz (5 years ago or so) Lovely beer, I could almost go drink-for-drink with locals and not fall over. I also remember that the bars are packed on Tuesday morning. My kind of continent.

mikebpeters: Thanks! The CAD/CAM part is the long pole in the tent, I feel lucky for already having my head around the CAD part before I started in CNC. I may post some Rhino tutorials I've made, about 3D modeling things like necks and such. Seems the interest in CNC is picking up around here, I like it!

Alex again: Here is a possible layout of fretboard dots. 1/4" (6.5mm) mother of pearl dots, 4mm Paua abalone inbetween dots. Let me know what you think, if you like I will drill out tonight.

[jmorbita]

amazing!

[Smilodon]

I love how the dots follow the grain in the wood.

Was that in your mind when selecting the piece or is it just luck?

[pilotjones]

Very cool with the swoosh and the grain.

If the large dots are all white and the small are mixed colors, you need to be very careful with layout. It would be easier if they were all the same shade. (At least it appears to be varying on the pic.)

[Beauchene Implements]

Originally Posted by Smilodon

I love how the dots follow the grain in the wood.

Was that in your mind when selecting the piece or is it just luck?

I designed that dot pattern quite a while ago, after Alex suggested a double helix. The dots on the nut end and bridge end should lay right between strings, and the 12th position dot is dead center. Reticle provided the cocobolo, MusicLogic dimensioned it and recommended which end be which. Once I laid it on the router, I did try to position it so that the dot pattern would harmonize, but also preserve lumber at the nut end. So it's mostly serendipidous. I think it looks great.

[PDGood]

Wow!

[Thumpin_P]

Very nice work!!! All of you guys are inspiring!!!

[HaMMerHeD]

I think 1/16" and 1/8" would look rather better to my eyes. The bigger dots just make it look way too busy to me.

[Musiclogic]

I like It, and like Mark, I also prefer the smaller dots, but to be honest that looks cool Adam.

Alex is the only judge that matters, if Alex like it, that is all that counts.

Awesome job Adam!!!

[HaMMerHeD]

Indeed it does look great. It's just the biggish dots that are a little offputting to me.