Aspire and 2 rail sweep for fingerboard

[banjomanwv]

We do inlay for a living, mostly in the banjo community. It usually takes a .024 bit for fret slots and while it can be done flat, we would like to prebend the wire and follow the curvature of the board

[steve_g]

Following the curvature is no problem when done as Brady suggested
SG

[barrowj]

Andrew,

I never seem to be able to view your files on Photobucket, any ideas. I seem to spin forever then just blank.

Joe

[Brady Watson]

FYI - most fretboards have the metal put in straight without curvature - on guitars anyway. So, projecting onto 3D surface is only required if you need the .023" bit to follow the curvature of the neck. Not sure how banjos are done, but most guitars go in straight.

-B

[banjomanwv]

Brady the problem with that is the bits only cut so deep. The fret slots need to be .090 on a banjo as standard. With a 8 radius it will hit in the middle of the board and by the time it hits the sides its already deep in the middle. by the time you go .090 deep on the edge it makes it like an accordion. If you start with a board that's .200 it leaves .160 at the last fret in thickness, you then have a slot .090 deep...that's leaves .050 and that's not much so the more meat I can leave in the middle the better

[banjomanwv]

Brady it worked just as you said, thanks so much...

[Ajcoholic]

FYI - most fretboards have the metal put in straight without curvature - on guitars anyway. So, projecting onto 3D surface is only required if you need the .023" bit to follow the curvature of the neck. Not sure how banjos are done, but most guitars go in straight.

-B

The only guitars with a flat board are classical. All others (acoustic or electric, bass guitars etc) have varying radii generally from 9" to 12"

Frets of course have to be curved to follow the curve of the board. Most companies run their wire through a bender that matches the boards radius.

In most commercial slotting operations, a .023" saw blade just cuts a straight slot through the board. The fret slot is deeper than the fret tang at the middle, but that usually gets filled with glue anyhow.

If you really need the slots cut the same depth as the tang than you can certainly do so as stated.

Ive made a whole lot of fretboards over the years for various guitars - but I have a small table saw set up with a slotting blade and do it the old way (not CNC). I radius by sanding, although I do machine contoured radius blocks on the CNC router. Im not production, but I used to make 4 to 6 custom guitars a year.

[banjomanwv]

I still don't have it. Its cutting a compound radius but its not the correct one. I make my two rails and then click on both radius lines I have drawn. then it runs but its not right. how do I make sure the one radius which is 7, is at one end and 12 on the other?

[banjomanwv]

I noticed when I pick my radius like the tutorial says then I can change it without changing it so to speak.
Scale to exact height changes the radius and then the "combine with the current shape" has two options...merge or add
that changes the radius to.....not for sure what to do?

[Brady Watson]

Your settings should look like the attached pic. Don't scale height or width. Make sure your cross section vectors are already the same width as the rails and height you want them to be in Z.

After selecting the rails, click on the first cross section and assign it to the top rail starting point. Then the 2nd section and the top rail end point. Hit apply to create the component. This will give you a sweep that starts with the first cross section & ends with the 2nd.

Add or Merge - doesn't matter if there is nothing else on the screen. Default is add.

-B