Looking for Mandolin g code or dxf

[mredican]

I just compleated my CNC and am looking for g code or dxf file for an f5 mandolin top and back. Does anyone know where I could get these files or know a good software program to make them. I have QuickCAD 8 but am not skilled enough to do 3d.

thanks

Matt Redican
mredican@quik.com

[cwoodall]

I'm looking for the same thing basically........I'll keep you in mind if I run across anything. BTW, what type design is your CNC machine?? I'm getting ready to get my build going. I have some ideas, but I'm real interested in what 'doesn't' work.

Thanks,

Curtis

[pharrell]

I would sure be interested too! I have a ShopBot PRT48, AutoCad, Artcam Insignia, and RhinoCad (haven't used it much though). I started an F5 and have the rim made up and the top carved (all by hand) and was thinking of trying to digitize the top plate and go ahead and make the back plate and digitize it. But I'm still trying to visualize how to setup the plates to hold them and be able to machine the blanks afterward. I know Dudenbostel uses the same setup but haven't seem enough pix to figure his out.
pharrell@engr.uga.edu

[pharrell]

Have you seen any close up details of the Rigel mandos? I know they machine the back and sides out of a solid billet and then make the top plate separately and fit it in a recess. They say you can string up a Rigel and play it without even attaching the top. It's supposed to be really easy to fine tune the top plate that way. I'd like to play one. They are supposed to sound great. I like the more traditional F5 look though.

[guitarman818]

I have plans for a f4 and and I might de able to help with dxf

[weenerdog]

i've had good luck modeling mandolin soundboards in rhino with ccycloid. i do not have a cnc router, but i generate a table of drillpoints/depths and would be glad to help.

[pharrell]

I've got RhinoCad but have just dabbled with it. I'm not familiar with ccycloid. Is it a plugin for Rhino? When I get back on the mando, I'm just going to use a digitizer probe that came with my ShopBot to get a profile for roughing the plates. I'd like to eventually get the ShopBot set up to do the headstock veneer with peg holes and binding/inlay slots the way Dudenbostel does them. Anybody else here doing that sort of thing? - Pat

[weenerdog]

No. ccycloid is a free program written by Steve Mann at U. of Waterloo in canada http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/ccycloid/

It generates cycloid curves based on soundboard width and height-of-arch. (Think of a button with a pencil through one of the holes...roll the button on its edge, the curve traced by the pencil is a cycloid.) Rhino you import that into Rhino to make the surface. What I then do is intersect the model with planes at 1/16" intervals to generate a nice set of contours. Makes the soundboard graduation easy.

Jerry

[Selmac]

Does anyone know how to get the program to output in dxf?
Everytime I attempt it nothing shows up on the screen after it is imported into autocad. Also when it creates a pdf, the file size is 11kb, and when it writes a dxf the file size is 1kb.

[weenerdog]

I had the same problem with dxf output, but got around it by generating ccycloid's output in csv, then importing the points into Rhinocerus.

Jerry

[sdantonio]

Hi Jerry,

I spent the last few days talking wth Steve Mann, the dxf output on cycloid has been fixed. It inadvertantly wrote an empty file. I have a copy of the corrected file at work. I'll post it if you still interested.

Did anyone ever get around to posting a set of f4 mando plans in dxf?

[weenerdog]

hey thanks! i would love a copy of the corrected version.

heres a couple pics of my latest mando in progress: