set up to build necks

[huntycnc]

Hello

I am a new user on this site and I have been hijacked by my teenage son to build a solid body electric guitar.

The body is complete and built to accomodate a neck off of a Ibanez RG270.

The project came out so good we now want to do our own necks.

Question: How do I set up to build the neck?? What bits would I use to mill the radius of the neck? Is there a best jig setup to use,,,etc?

Can anybody direct me to a source for cnc milling the neck??

I have a 4x8 servo /w 5hp perski, enroute pro 3D, acad etc (and others)

Would anybody have a 3d neck file in dxf, 3ds etc

I will post a picture as soon as I figure out how to attach one.

Appreciate any help or advice.


This site is awsome, i'm like a kid in a candy store, great forum.

Regards

Paul

[ger21]

The first step would be to model your neck in 3D, if you can't find one already done.
I haben't done one myself, but it would probably be easiest to carve the back prior to attaching the fretboard, so it would be easier to hold down. You'd also want to use a ballnose spiral bit, or round nose core box carbide tipped woodworking bit.

[huntycnc]

Thanks for that Gerry

I do commonly use ball-nose bits for relief work yet I wasn't sure that it would be commonly used for this purpose.

I have been toying with an idea of a set of pocketed jigs /w vac-on clamping. One with an inverted radius to hold the machined neck and allow for truss rod milling. The other of course would just hold the blank,, before head stock lamination.

Do anybody know of any 3d models for a neck??

Thanks for the help

[ger21]

The jigs you mention would work, but would be overkill for a one-off neck, imo.

[GuitarEng]

Milling the necks is usually done with a ball mill. The toolpath is usually oriented along the axis of the neck..as it is better to cut with the grain than against it.

Also, it is easiest to mill out a truss rod slot and all that stuff before the neck is carved. Vacum jigs are commonly used by guitar manufacturers to hold the neck down.

as for 3D modeling of the necks, most neck profiles are reasonably circular, with the heel end of the neck having a larger radius than the nut end. Some are "tweaked" with little things that do a lot to make them feel more comfortable....but that's all I'll say! Most good 3D packages would be able to effectively model a neck carve surface.

[sdantonio]

Hi Paul,

If you would, please be sure to post your files for the body. If you look on the thread "lets build a strat" http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread...ighlight=strat (if I remember the thread right) there is g-code for a stratocaster neck. There may be dxf's too. I don't remember.

Steven

[sdantonio]

lets build a strat page 6 post #80 (there is a way to link directly to a single post. but I don't remember how right now). The pages before it give a good explaination of what lead up to generating the gcode.

Steven