Official Luthiers Forum!

Anybody have some advice on cutters and speeds?

Is it feasible? I'm thinking of putting together something based on the TAIG milling machine which seems to have really tight tolerances and sturdy construction.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Think and tinker has the bits. The 10K head on the Taig is a little low but will work as long as the runnout is not too bad. You'll want to keep the pearl dust away from your ways.

Thanx!
What do you mean by "ways"?
BTW my friend got his bass, loves it!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

The ways are the sliding surfaces for the X, Y & Z. Taig talks about hardened gibs (which tighten against the ways to remove the play) but there's no mention of what material the ways are. Pearl dust is pretty abrasive so just make sure to keep your machine clean, don't let the dust build up.

The Taig looks like a good machine. I was looking at picking one up a few years back.

Is that bass one of ours?

Only if you build "Dingwall Guitars". It appears to be a "Super J Standard".

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Old growth, shmold growth!

...all quite possible with a CNC machine....including the engraving...

here is one in the process of being completed....



the precisebits tools are great....as others have stated....fast spindle speed, slow cutting speed....never had any issues cutting or engraving....

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-CyborgCNC
http://www.cncguitar.com
https://www.facebook.com/CncGuitar

What kind of machine are you using? RPM's?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Head over to my site...machine is one I build... You can see all info there...
Using a VFD with a dust shoe, 18k RPMs...

Dust extraction and personal protection are of paramount importance...

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-CyborgCNC
http://www.cncguitar.com
https://www.facebook.com/CncGuitar

Actually I checked your site out already. Looks like you made a cnc machine, then made another machine with your machine.

Pretty cool!

Do you have am OLF'er discount on your videos, or a bundle deal?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

As others have said, you want lots of RPM for shell. I used 65000 or 90000 RPM, but I'd say 15K would be OK. I've cut shell at 10K RPM, but it is VERY slow going and you've got a much higher breakage risk.

Shell dust is no better or worse than any other dust- depending on how you hold down the shell, a nice little puddle of water or oil on top of the shell can keep all the dust down.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Awesome.

How much would you charge me for an "S" medallion? It's going to be a while before I can get an appropriate machine and program it. I have a small one for acoustics and electrics and a big one for basses. They're identical, just scaled up and down in size.

They look like this:

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I'm out of the biz temporarily, or maybe permanently...but probably temporarily...and at least for another six months to a year. I can say that I haven't gotten an angry phone call from any clients I've thrown at Andy Birko yet

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Cool. Let's see what he can do..

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Thanks for the plug, Bob!

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I can certainly praise Andy's work. He has done a bunch of different things for me and each one has been perfect. Lead time has been great, communication, pricing, etc. Highly recommended. Everyone at Costa Guitars loves his work. More importantly, every one of my customers has loved his work as well.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

tgw is that roasted birdseye the neck is made from? Beautiful regardless if it was roasted, boiled, or just colored!!

Mike

Yup, totally roasted and tung oiled.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I recieved my first "S" from Andy, looks good!

The method he devised for making the inlay was CNC a background, and then cut the outside border and inner "S" to nest inside it. That way all the grain in the ovals and the sheen all match perfectly.

As you can see in the comparison picture, the first "S" inlaid in the guitar has some gaps that have been filled in, and there's a part that fills in one of the spaces in the "s" that has a completely different reflective sheen than the rest of the background (and even a few cracks!). At arms length it's not so bad, but it could be better.

The new CNC "S" doesn't have that problem, and the fit is much cleaner and tighter. Once it's installed, sanded super smooth and finished over it will be overall much cleaner looking in the guitar, with cohesive chatoyance. In fact, the lines flow better, look at the tail that goes through the middle "S". If it looks this good up close, it will look even better further away.

Thanx Andy!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

How can I get in touch with Andy for inlay work and prices?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

Say his name 3 times at midnight the first tuesday of the month in front of a candle lit mirror and he shall appear. Make your request known.

Or go to his website.....:

http://www.birkonium.com/

You can e-mail him from there.

Or PM him.

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Old growth, shmold growth!