I didn't mean the inlay, I meant the detail cut on the end of the fingerboard.
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Winter Build-Off 2023: Twin Tigers!!!
- Thread starter Lonnybass
- Start date
ohhh yes - I haven’t cut out the carve at the end yet. I usually do this just before finish sanding so as not to risk splintering the ebony while handling the neck during rough machining.
Control area is laid out to match the other bass.
It's the rear cavity that stresses me out the most. Getting the wood thin enough that even long shaft pots fit without breaking it is stressful! 
You guys make it look so easy.
You guys make it look so easy.
It's the rear cavity that stresses me out the most. Getting the wood thin enough that even long shaft pots fit without breaking it is stressful!
You guys make it look so easy.
In all honesty the rear cavity is probably my least favorite part of any build! Clearing out all that lumber down to a 3/8" surface area of highly figured wood, without the ability to see much of anything because it's blocked by the base of the router, while kicking up a massive quantity of sawdust and wood chips...it's both tedious and terrifying for me.
My only advice, take it VERY slow on the amount of wood you remove with each pass, and frequently check the collet on the router bit to make sure it is still holding firm. About ten years ago, I had a bit come loose while doing a rear cavity and it almost blew out the entire thing.
Routing for pickup switches is even less fun, as the threads require a depth of about four or five millimeters instead of the usual cavity depth of eight to nine. You can see the area in the pictures where I had to rout the extra depth.
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To add to my previous post - if there was any one step that would make the purchase of a CNC worthwhile to me, it would be to do rear cavities! I hate it that much!
Yup, I'm right there with ya! And i totally hear you on the collet thing, it happened to me too. Luckily it didn't cause any issues, but it could have been really bad.
I'm trying to convince myself that I want to approach the budget manager (my wife) about acquiring a CNC. But to get the size for being useful for making basses and guitars they get really pricey really quickly.
Bob's CNC seems to be the best value/cost out there, but even there a 2x4 machine is $2k...
Bob's CNC seems to be the best value/cost out there, but even there a 2x4 machine is $2k...
Yeah, you're a bit of a different case, because you are really edging out of the hobby builder realm. I've seen some decent, low cost (relatively speaking) CNC rigs that work fine for the hobby builder, but I'm not sure they'd work for you. I watch Dave over on the Ewor Guitars YouTube channel and he is using the Next Wave Shark 510. It punches in at roughly $4k. The 520 is another grand. Table size is 28"x36" with a spindle head travel limit of 25"x25"x7". My understanding is, like pretty much every CNC out there, you have to provide the spindle head separately. You can order a 2hp spindle through Next Wave for an additional grand, or the 3hp head for $1,400. So all in all, you'd be in basically $5k. And I think, having watched Dave using his, it's a good rig. He is cutting full bodies out of it as well as doing some neck operations on it too. It does come with the Vcarve software, so no additional cost there. And the Vcarve has a "tiling" feature in case your operation is longer than your table limits.
I mentioned Dave's channel because he is really doing an amazing job with some of his CNC fixtures and operations for a guy who literally just started using it last year. Those of you with a CNC might want to look up his channel and see what he is doing with jigs on the CNC.
The Next Wave is all extruded aloominoom where-as Bob's is all laser cut wood, thus the cost savings. I'm not against wood, but I do have reservations on something like this.
Anyways, I spit all this out because I feel like the Next Wave is pretty synonymous with the market, it's a good ball park for anyone interested in how much it would cost to get into something that you probably won't wish you had spent more money on in about 6 months.
I'll park my thread derail there and leave a quick apology to Lonny. Back to your tigers!
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@TerribleTim68 Thanks! Very useful and informative.
I don't see the need for an apology (but then I'm not the OP
).
I don't see the need for an apology (but then I'm not the OP
).
I always feel bad when I derail a build thread. Especially because in my mind there's a Moderator watching over us from above waiting to spank our hand if we get too far off topic. You get a couple posts deleted and you start thinking about these things.@TerribleTim68 Thanks! Very useful and informative.
I don't see the need for an apology (but then I'm not the OP
You get a whole thread shut down for a couple weeks and you really start pondering what you're posting.
I went through all that. Then over time I became my own severest moderator. Many times I will type a long post, then decide it's not sufficiently relevant, or too self-indulging, too off-topic, or just a lame joke, and I delete it all. In a number of cases I've re-read an already uploaded post and deleted it for similar reasons.I always feel bad when I derail a build thread. Especially because in my mind there's a Moderator watching over us from above waiting to spank our hand if we get too far off topic. You get a couple posts deleted and you start thinking about these things.
You get a whole thread shut down for a couple weeks and you really start pondering what you're posting.
I don't fear the mods any more. But yeah, I recognise what you say.
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Yeah,I've got an odd sense of humor... I literally have to watch everything I type.
Watch, as in heavily self edit
