using cut3D --guitar neck

[woodman08]

experiment on machining a guitar neck (tele)

Maching out a tele guitar neck.
An experiment as its much simpler to purchase the neck than making one.
But i had never machined out a 3D object so this would be a good start.
I used cut3D but it would not allow tabs 2 good heavy duty tabs at either end would have helped
as i selected .25 overcut so there would be no scrap wood left to hold the
neck in place.Secondly i should have allowed about 4 in at either end.
Then you need a fairly long end mill ,mine were 1/2 flat/round end 3 in long so about 2.25 is
ready for machining ,but i could have used about 2.75 as it was hitting the collet.
Not sure if you can get 3.5 in 3/8 or 1/2 end mills that long.
And its a very slow process,but did work and if i would have had better alignment when i flipped
the blank 180 degrees it would have machined more accurate.
Also the z=0 should be a standalone reference as when you do the first rough cut you loose your reference spot ,but it was the first and i will try it again with improvements

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_sz0TTaLiw

[woodman08]

tried a different method after some suggestions about doing top and bottom and it worked fine and because i used a board about 6 in wide
i was able to add tabs which turned out very good .But i used z=0 at the bottom left and when i flipped the board i was out by 1/8
so it looks like z=0 should be centre of the project and i also used 3/8 end mills probably a better finish.
Turned out ok

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5b41uwTd8 guitar neck 2 2nd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6WNV9MXEIA cut3d video

[bleeth]

As long as your project is put in the correct location on your table it should flip fine with zero at the table corner. It looks though as if the neck is a little out of center. It is important that your board width be exactly the size of the project and that your design is dead centered in it. Off by an 1/8 means a 1/16 error somewhere (or two adding up to that).