I really want to thank Don Williams for inspiring me to push my boundries in the CNC world. I have watched his progress with his home built mill and I am in awe at what he has been able to accomplish in a short time. He has been extremely gracious to help answer a few questions I had and to offer assistance too. I want to thank Parser for his help in getting me started with neck CAD work. I have been able to take the drawings he did for me and expand those drawings into a world of other types of necks for a lot of applications.
There is a bit of an update for you on my new mill... The controller for this model of router was built in the last days of the DOS operating system and operated differently than today's controllers do. The way it worked was that an object was created in a very old version of AutoCAD, and then "printed" to the controller. This controller stored that object and would cut the project on it's own based on the drawings it got from AutoCAD. It will not respond to any of the messages sent by any of the windows type of control programs. I have had to buy a new Gecko drive for the machine, which had to be modified to run the brake on the Z drive. It should be lightning fast compared to the mini mill Ihad been using. The Gecko drive is being built extra heavy duty to be able to handle constant use of the mill and I have invested in some of the leading programs for developing new items and replicating some of the old standards in the luthier trade.
The good news is that I bought the machine dirt cheap and the motors and brakes and ball screws were in good shape. Even with buying a new controller, I will still have less than $5k invested in the machine. It has over 12" of "Z" and the gantry is capable of cutting 30" x 48". The heavier machine, ball screw drive, bigger motors and the 3 1/2 HP spindle should handle just about anything I should ever want to route out.
I have been working with BobCAD and have quite a few projects that I will be testing the machine with. I have over 200 neck blanks (mostly cherry) that I will turn into necks and a bunch of other woods that will go for various other projects such as electric guitar bodies. I have been investing in wood for over a year now to use in this venture and I should have some really unique stuff coming out of the mill soon. My goal is to find enough market for some of the products to be able to let my wife quit working at the teaching job and start working with me instead. It may be a pipe dream, but one I have to try.
As of right now, the mini-mill is disassembled, but can be easily be put back together. I may find a use for the smaller mill such as inlay work, or I may sell it.... not sure what it's fate will be right now. The new controller for my big mill should be back by the end of the week and I hope to spend the weekend reassembling it to start working with it.
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