Guitar Milling advise

[CyborgCNC]

Hi All,

I have designed the guitar you see in solidworks, and I am going to use MasterCam X2 to cut it. I have cut other guitars using Mastercam, but they have all been simple solid bodies, and I was able to use pocket and profile operations to cut them.

As you can see, the guitar here has a carved/surfaced top around the edges, and in the neck pockets, and I was wondering what would be the best aproach to machining these out?

I have not done much 3D machining, and I am not that familiar with all the surface rough and surface finish tool-paths yet in the milling menu.

Some advise on the tool paths and their names to use, and guidance how to do it, would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

[flinty]

This may assist.
create a bounding box, then toolpath, surface, pocket rough .
Select the side surfaces or all of the surfaces and machine the entire body using a spherical ( ball type tool) with a small stepover ie: 10mm ball step at around 2mm 25mm ball step at about 4mm check to leave about 1,0 mm of stock to leave X Y and Z, tick any check surfaces ( do not machine surfaces) tell it the bounding box is the pocket boundary and use parrallel for machining in rough.
Do the same again using a finish toolpath and uncheck the stock to leave tab.
On my machine having historically done a few moulds this should take about an hour to do and by the way if on the finish toolpath you use a 0.2mm stepover it will clean the job up perfectly and not have a lot of machine scallop marks to remove by sanding.
Be interested to see the finished pics.
cc

[CyborgCNC]

Thank you for the advise Flinty..

I was able to use the toolpaths you told me, and after simulating them on the program, I came out with this...Pretty damn nice I might say!

I can see how clean a ball-mill cuts after the finishing path...and the parallel toolpaths really do a nice job.

I need to add the pockets for the pick-ups and the trem, and then I will be ready to cut and make some chips (body will be solid Honduran Mahogany).

Thanks again mate...

[flinty]

Looks great,
you can also try machining at angles to get different results in timber IE across the grain at an angle .
When you verify, up the quality selector and the surface ( from experience ) will look exactly as it will when it comes off the machine, and if you need it smoother, make the step over smaller or if space allows use a larger ball mill.
Go for it, and Let us have a pic when it is machined.
cc

[Vicros]

For Finishing You Might Also Try A Finish Scallop Toolpath.

Basically It Makes Your Stepover And Step Down The Same All Over The Surfaces Which Means The Little Material The Ball Leaves Is Going To Be The Same All Over The Body.

Could You Please Post The Model Of Your Guitar, It Looks Awesome
And I Would Like To Try It Myself.

Keep Going

[alexccmeister]

Hi Flinty,

Can you explain a little more on the procedure. I tried creating a curve surface solid in solidedge and opened it with Mastercam X as a .par file. But following your procedure you described, I couldn't get a toolpath for machining the curve surface. Any help you can give is very much appreciated. Thanks.

Alex

[flinty]

Alex I must admit I have never used or imported a solid into MC and have generally used IGES files.
Possibly you will need to: create, surface, ruled/loft, select the entities and go on from there.
I am sure there are well knowledgeable MC usere out there that could better answer your question, sorry
cc

[alexccmeister]

Hi Flint,

No problem, Thanks. I managed to download a pdf file by Avery Fabrication laboratory I found while searching and it basically outline the procedure for surface milling. It answered my question. If anyone interested I may post or email. I think its a free resource, but I could be wrong.

Alex

[cadcam]

for those angled edges try using Flowline for a nice uniform cuts.
I have slew of guitar bodies I have designed.

[CyborgCNC]

Hello CadCAM,

BINGO! Flowline is what I used, and I have to say it works out great! Need all the bodies to be solids however, as I found out by trial and error. I could not get flowline to work initially, and reverted to parallel. However, after converting ALL the surfaces to solids, they all worked!!

Did a rough path first with a bull-nose mill, and then did a finish path...it is AMAZING how well it cuts...I mean light sanding is only required after the finish path...does take a bit of time to cut, but well worth it in my opinion.

Would love to see a couple of your models, if you feel like sharing...

THanks!

[cadcam]

Hello CadCAM,

BINGO! Flowline is what I used, and I have to say it works out great! Need all the bodies to be solids however, as I found out by trial and error. I could not get flowline to work initially, and reverted to parallel. However, after converting ALL the surfaces to solids, they all worked!!

Did a rough path first with a bull-nose mill, and then did a finish path...it is AMAZING how well it cuts...I mean light sanding is only required after the finish path...does take a bit of time to cut, but well worth it in my opinion.

Would love to see a couple of your models, if you feel like sharing...

THanks!

I would like to see your surface file as Flow wroks great with surface and there is no surfcae path that has to be used only with a solid.

As for the finish what was the step over and what size tool?

I will share later when I am back at the home office.