Official Luthiers Forum!

I know beans about cnc computers for luthiery , but would like to learn . Where do I start.? I spoke with a machinest friend and he suggested I start with a cnc router to do certain shop tasks. Thanks for your suggestions.

You'll need to learn CAD first. Rhino 3D is the clear choice for most luthiers. I recommend going to their site and finding a course for beginners (which may come with a discount on the software). Chances are likely youll need to travel to take a 2-3 day course. I live in a relatively remote area where travel to a classroom was cost and time prohibitive. In retrospect learning on my own has been way more costly.

assuming you're totally green you're going to need to know about the machine's dynamics first. what is the spindle, which way is x, y, z, what is a collet, how do i set the thing up, etc...so basically i propose:

1) get to a machine, yours or somebody else's, and figure out with a book, owner's manual, etc..what is what or have somebody show you (probably best).
2) set it up and run something programmed by somebody else on it. watch what it does. some machine controllers have a "stop block"" function. good way to observe code in action line by line.
3) learn your Gcode. your machine may have direct MDI or not, but at least you'll be able to edit code when you see it later. it's easier then it looks.
4) pick a CAD/CAM system and learn it. Rhino is apparently what we luthiers use. check it out. post code, run parts, repeat.

I agree with pretty much what has been said here. You need to learn to use CAD, and Rhino is recommendable. If you can't afford Rhino, Moi3D is a good option. I don't consider any other options worth it compared to your time investment in learning them- why spend 500 hours becoming great at using a subpar tool?

So far as the machines themselves go, Arie hits it right on the head with the first recommendation- go see one in action, get the operator to point out the parts and what it's doing, and learn a bit of G-code.

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Read this.....

http://www.vectric.com/support/introduc ... NC%20Guide

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

thank you all for the info

One thing to look into is what kind of work you are doing. If you are carving out solid body guitars, that is one thing. But for acoustics, you can get a lot done with a 2.5 D program, and I am certainly hoping to get away with some cheaper tools for the time being. I was reading this Guitarmaker magazine from around 2000, it was interesting to see what Bob Taylor was doing back then with some pretty simple tools. He was looking for simple 2D solutions.

Many Technical Schools offer night study CNC operator certificates on Vertical Mills.
This material translates fairly well to any G-Code based router system.
I spent 6 months at school and don't regret it.