Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey all. I'm about to come into some inheritance money and I was considering investing in a CNC machine for building guitars with.

I've not got much experience with this and ive been looking around seeing a vast array of prices and specs on different machines.

Just looking for a little advice on this please guys. What's my kinda minimum specifications or is there a preferred machine us luthiers use? Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Brian.

Have you looked at the CNC subforum of OLF?

viewforum.php?f=10106

Hey Freeman, got any new projects going on?

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Right on down the slippery slope...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Just the usual - building an oak cabinet for a speaker and amp that I built last year (cabinet making, not lutherie). An old friend who I've never met (story here) wants a cedar topped J-35 - he lives in New Orleans and we've always wanted to visit there so.... A new forumite on another forum has contacted me about a custom build for him - I've told him all the reasons its a bad idea but that hasn't had any effect so I'll probably have to do it. Othewise same old same old. Probably has nothing to do with CNC.

Fwiw - in my previous life as an engineer I worked for a company with lots of CNC options - turning centers, mills and a big laser cutter. I never actually used them for making guitars (we cut metal, not wood) but I made a heck of a lot of neat jigs and templates. There, back on subject

Google xCarve.

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

_________________
Another day, another dollar.

Hi Brian,

Good choices for CNC are going to be based around what you need, what you intend to do, how much money you have VS how much time you have, and whether you want to add CNC as its own hobby beside your guitar building or to have it act as a tool.

If you're getting a machine to mess around on, not to make a living, and you've got more time than money then building a kit is a good option.
If you have those things plus want CNC building as a hobby then you could build from plans.
If you value your time at more than a few dollars an hour, you won't save any money building your own unless you're a professional builder, so pick a well regarded hobbyist machine in your price range.
If you need reliability and are looking to make a business out of it, then pick a machine well regarded by people who make their living with them.

If you can be a bit more specific about your needs, hopes, dreams, wants, and budget then I can give better advice

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services