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My Avid CNC has 8” of Z clearance and currently no vacuum capabilities nor any vertical work table.
I purchased an acoustic neck STl model from GenOne and have another model I made using Aspire.
So my questions revolve around work holdfast solutions, carving techniques, and neck blank makeup.
My models are for a 12 fret neck with a standard mortise and tenon bolt on connection.
Advice with pictures to stimulate my thought process would be greatly appreciated.
Tom

I am more or less where you are right now. I don't really have any technical advice for you as I haven't made that step yet. But I found it easier to decide how to do something by splitting the neck into different categories which would isolate the challenges to just those categories. For instance I think of the headstock as one category. How you would want to machine the headstock, how you hold it, which operations you do would be different than how you treat the radiused profile. The heel would also provide it's own challenges but if you isolate it as it's own procedure, it would be much more manageable.

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
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I do the same as Marcus on necks--heel, shaft and headstock are treated differently when I model them, but on guitar necks, I generally do the CAM work for the neck in its entirety. Works fine for me. Banjo necks with fancy headstocks work better for me doing the CAM on the headstock separately from the rest of the neck. I generally do a rough pass using facing type tool paths leaving .03 inches or so and finish up using going sideways against the neck shaft (X axis on my models) with the overlap set to get a good smooth finish cut. I cut all of my necks with a 1/2 inch ball end mill--a good long one.

As far as work holding is concerned, good quality double stick tape works fine for me holding the neck blank down to a spoil board. I have a vacuum setup that I use for banjo necks, since I make them all pretty much the same, but I still use double stick tape for guitar necks. I've been using the Hippie Crafters tape--it's strong enough to hold, but will still release when it's time without causing much cussing.

Here's a link to a YouTube I did about 10 years back showing my first attempt at carving a neck--this is a couple of CNC machines ago, but I still do it about the same way.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcnG11joe8

Dave