CAM & DIY CNC machining Guitar Body with Fusion360

[@HilkoGuitars]

Hey Audiohotshot. Thanks for making these videos, I know it takes a lot of work to make them. The video's help me a lot learning Fusion360, just started learning the program for cam uses. Just a note on the tearout. Yes better (a lot more expensive) routerbits will help a lot and yes a ballend too. If you run those with the grain of the wood (not against) you'll get a much better result. Good luck with your next project. Looking forward to an upcoming video. Greetings from Belgium, Hilko

[@Audiohotshot]

Thanks and good points indeed; I'm doing projects with a ball nose now which gives very good results and also I'm trying to improve on strategies overall (e.g. 'eating' away more material in the Z direction at once in the Adaptive Clearing strategies for example to speed up things quite a bit but also helps getting better results in the end). I do find using a ballnose is a major improvement already, it helps to get rid of those ugly 'steps'. I try to maintain one direction for some strategies if possible. But then again; as long as it's not tearing up the stock too much in the endresult I do not mind a little sanding :-)

[@HilkoGuitars]

@@Audiohotshot Yes the balance between fast routing and some elbow grease with sanding is just fine. Great to hear you're making improvements! Can't wait to generate my first toolpaths in Fusion360 and make some chips. Best, Hilko

[@santiagoibarraryan5666]

Thank you so much!

[@Audiohotshot]

Sure thing!

[@patronista]

amazing work, this type of modeling and cam, can be done with the free version of Fusion 360 or is it the full version. thanks

[@Audiohotshot]

As long as your machine is a 3 axis CNC machine you can use the free version as well.

[@stevewalker2962]

This is great! Your videos are really helpful 👊

[@Audiohotshot]

👍You're welcome!

[@stevewalker2962]

@@Audiohotshot I actually started a guitar following your video last night and I'm really pleased with how it's going! Hoping to have a cnc setup soon, I'm building my own 😁

[@Audiohotshot]

I also built my own machine, that was really fun to do! And I learned a lot as well! If you are interested; the details of the machine you see in the video are here : www.audiohotshot.nl/howto-how-i-built-my-diy-cnc-machine/

[@stevewalker2962]

@@Audiohotshot that's fantastic thanx very much! I'm working my way thru your videos, the info and your explanations are so helpful and the info on our link looks very helpful too 😁

[@othermichigansaturn]

Master CAD/CAM Ninja. Cheers!

[@Audiohotshot]

CAD/CAM Ninja. I like it! ;-)

[@danabbate4623]

Excellent video as always. I've watched this several time. The only thing I'm still not 100% clear about is your CAM process to make the dowel holes in the spoil board and how you line the stock up to those holes in relation.

[@Audiohotshot]

For the first side (lets say the top side) it is not nescesary to line up the stock with the holes in the spoilboard. As long as the XY zero points stays the same you can make the dowelholes at the top side of the stock. It automagically lines up when you flip the stock around the y axis (in my case that is the y axis).

[@danabbate4623]

@@Audiohotshot Thank you again. Your videos have been immensely helpful. I've already carved my first body and neck!

[@Audiohotshot]

That’s great to hear! Glad it works out for you! Been busy myself as well; trying some new strategies for a new guitar and finishing another guitar (adding frets, finish the body with oil and so on). Keep up the good work!

[@ben2travel2]

Wow nice video explaining lots of the details that are hard to know when someone is starting out. How do you set the reference point when you have two sides to machine

[@Audiohotshot]

There are several ways of setting up doublesided milling. I also show different ways of doing this. Have a look here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHPbZatoiZKcf7s or kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpqac2V_p5t8r5I . Hope this helps!

[@wadetomczyk8043]

Is there an initial video prior to this one that goes from the beginning i.e. like starting at setting up stock material and going through the tool path options?

[@Audiohotshot]

Would this video be more clear? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpqac2V_p5t8r5I

[@c21delta94]

What cnc machine do you like best? Regarding cad 3D is there a library of templates for various guitars bodies & necks that are open source?

[@Audiohotshot]

I'm the wrong person for asking a opinion on other ready-made machines; I've built my own...

[@SystematicMechanic]

Hi. why do you use screws? The dowels don't hold the stock in place?

[@Audiohotshot]

Correct, the dowels line up the stock, but for holding down and thus securing the stock I use screws, I do not mind screwing them into the spoilboard (after all, it is a spoilboard right?). I hope I’ve answered your question 😊

[@SystematicMechanic]

@@Audiohotshot yeah. Have you tried just using the dowels? Or will the stock move?

[@Audiohotshot]

Have not tried without, but learning from experience, for me anyway, nothing beats a good old screw :-) There are ofcourse other ways to prevent the stock from moving in any direction: I’ve seen people using masking tape and glue, I’ve seen special clamps. But screwing down the stock I like best sofar

[@markdayneowalla]

When using tabs for a 2 sided contour, where do you locate the tabs so they are not machined away when you flip the workpiece? Tabs are always created from the bottom of the stock upwards to whatever dimension you choose.

[@Audiohotshot]

In this particular case I tried to place them in such a way that they do no get lost while machining this body. I say 'in this case' because with a flat backside guitar, it pays off to look for a way to do a full depth pass on the sides to prevent leaving machine marks behind (providing you have a tall enough bit). You can see here ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3SofJ1mq7KegK8) that the machine only goes halfway. In another video I even make tabs on two side, opposite to eachother ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYqWdmqfmtWtpdU and kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYqWdmqfmtWtpdU).

[@josefinabeck9052]

hi thanks for your videos, are very cool, i wanna ask you why when im make a neck pocket about 57mm (design) when my machine make the pocket i have a 55.5mm or 56mm result, what im doing wrong?

[@Audiohotshot]

Let me get my crystal ball here ;-) You might have got a Stock to Leave at 0,5mm active? Also what I've learned is to make the neckpocket just a bit wider (0,5mm all around), I wrote about it earlier on my blog, feel free to have a look here: www.audiohotshot.nl/cnc-machining-guitar-body/ Hope this helps!

[@josefinabeck9052]

@@Audiohotshot thank you. i have another question, when the machine finish some operation, the cutter it goes to some distance of the vector Z, and make a hole in the stock. where i can preset the final posicion of the router betwen operation and in the final operation.. thanks!

[@Audiohotshot]

Again, I'll look at my crystal ball :-) Sound like your G28 parameter is not correctly set. Have a look at this vid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGTKf2itpt9lfKc Hope this helps!

[@PaulBostrom]

Thank you kind sir, you are a saint.

[@Audiohotshot]

Glad you find the info helpful! Cheers!

[@gonzalosegovia1494]

Amazing video like always! In my experience rounded bits can give you a better finish, specially on carved tops. However as the effective area of the edges is smaller it was increasing the amount of passes and the total time. Also I had he problem of reconfiguring z, due the own length of the bit. But definitely something it worth trying! I wanted also to thank you for all your videos, you did a great job on the tutorials of Fusion 360! Also do you offer routing service? I'm really looking forward to machine a new design buts getting harder for me to find someone in Europe to do it.

[@Audiohotshot]

I'm really curious about the results with the ballnose bit; I'll first have to buy new stock though :-) Unfortunately I do not offer a "routing service", I would not want to mess up your project. (although I'm interested in the idea of offering this service), but here (the Netherlands) we have FabLab; a service open to all, where you can 'rent' a machine onsite. They have 3d printers, lasercutters and cnc machine as well. There might just be such a service where you live.

[@gonzalosegovia1494]

@@Audiohotshot Awesome! Thanks a lot!, I wasnt aware of this kind of places, just found one here in Prague and I'll go forward to machine it as soon as possible! I'll try to post you a video response :)

[@Audiohotshot]

Please do! Great that you found a service nearby!

[@PjotrStroganov]

Another great video. Personally I would change the ramp of the helix to something more aggressive like 25 degrees or more. I guess fusion thinks we are all milling aluminium.;)

[@Audiohotshot]

Most of the time I forget, but you could try setting the topheight of the start of the helix somewhat lower... hardly any difference, just saves time (a few seconds...but still). I try to minimize the amount of helix use but, there's just no way to always prevent it....

[@othermichigansaturn]

@Autodesk would benefit from having brand ambassadors like this guy. Bright creators, that can demonstrate their real-world capabilities for making previously impossible objects, one-offs, and prototypes. It takes a bit of hard work, a tool like #Fusion360 and a #DIYCNC in hands of the sufficiently creative #Maker.

[@othermichigansaturn]

Hige Kudos!!

[@ronin2167]

Did you do the neck too?

[@Audiohotshot]

Sure, have a look at kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHPbZatoiZKcf7s and for more info here: www.audiohotshot.nl/routing-the-neck/

[@othermichigansaturn]

I would love for you to talk with folks at our Makerspace via Skype or whatever. We have a lot of CNC and 3DP resources and folks eager to learn from the masters. :) Thanks for a great and inspiring video. It means a lot that this stuff is available to people that want to learn and explore. Cheers!

[@Audiohotshot]

Sure! I'd love to try and help others; that's the main reason I posted these videos and write about it on my blog. But I'm in no way a 'master', though, I could talk for hours about my mistakes :-) (feel free to mail me :-)

[@rvabarndoors]

Sweet!