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Anyone here using a carver made by Radar Carve to do acoustic necks? Experiences? Thanks, Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

I have used a similar device called a duplicarver. I can make one by hand faster. The idea is that a stylus is used to follow a pattern. This is set up usually with a bit that matches the stylus. The result is ok but once you make a few you can make them by hand pretty fast.
It doesn't replicate fine details unless you you a small cutter and stylus. The smaller the more accurate .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks John.-I know they are slow machines. Sometimes I get mahogany that is tough as nails and then I start dreaming about a better way. Too old for CNC and not willing to have necks made by someone else.--Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

I've not used this particular brand, but I have used a copy carver of similar construction before. It is an unpleasant experience. It is very slow going, makes a TON of noise, your hands go numb from the vibration, and you still have to spend a lot of time cleaning up the surface. I would certainly try to lay your hands on one and do a real job with it before you part with a fair amount of hard earned money.

Not sure if this will nelp, but if you search "using a sander to shape guitar neck" on you tube there's videos with some cool ideas.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hi Bob,
What type of necks are you making? I use a simple router method to remove the bulk of the wood, and in some cases it will leave a surface that requires little additional work.

FWIW , about 10 yrs ago , I read a book written by a pro woodworker in utah . who did besides carving, electric guitars . His thesis was the only carving machines that were worth buying, were the commercial ones that could copy at least 5 pieces at one time .Otherwise a professional carver could easily replicate the speed of doing 2 or 3 without a carving machine. I would not buy one. My 2 cents worth of opinion

Can you share some pics?

New username, same ole Pat Macaluso!

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Pat

Clay- I do acoustic guitar and uke necks. About a thousand of them over 40 years. At 72, with less energy, if I'm going to keep doing this stuff I need to find some shortcuts. I use router bits in a milling machine to do some of the rounder work on the neck shaft, but the heel is more difficult. Uke necks are mostly Spanish Cedar these days, which is very fast and easy to carve, but Mahogany guitar heels are something I've never found many shortcuts for. I resort to a variety of sanding drums, knives, files, and rasps. I would be interested in seeing your router ideas.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

I can do a heel on my belt sander in about 10 min

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Hi Bob,
I will try to take some pictures of the ways I shape various style necks using common power tools. Tools I use include a jointer, bandsaw, tablesaw, drill press,and router. Depending on the style of neck I am making I will adjust what tools and the order I use them to save materials and hand work. Generally I prefer to do necks with glued on block heels and pegheads (bridle, hidden scarf, and glued on "ears" types) because of material savings, but some of the methods can be used for one piece necks.
A couple of quick pictures for shaping heels follow:
1. A router jig for doing Gibson style heels and neck shaft, after first tapering and profiling the neck blank (either jointer and/or band saw)
2. Using the table saw to rough out a Spanish (Martin) style heel. This is done in a fashion similar to making cove molding - passing the wood over the blade at 90 degrees to it using the miter gauge and the fence as a stop.
I will try to explain some of the other things I do after I take some photos which I hope will show things better.

I know at one time, and maybe currently, Mario Proulx used a Lancelot blade on an angle grinder to quickly remove material.

The tools found here might be of interest if you are looking to remove tough material quickly:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=43424&cat=1,130,43409

Logan, I have all these LV tools for carving the elm and sycamore seats for our welsh stick chairs. While these are all great tools for removing a lot of surplus wood .I would hesitate to suggest these tools for novices just starting out, For beginners I would recommend hand tools . Once the chips start to fly with these power tools it is very easy to make a mistake. IMHO