My CNC Neck Setup Process | Fusion360 and Mach 3 | Stratocaster Neck

I hope this helps some of you understand my process for milling strat style necks. It works for me, and if you can find something that makes your method easier within it, all the better.
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That's it, why are you still reading this? Go on get, be on your way now, I have stuff to do. I can't sit here and keep typing this. I have to stop at some point,
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ok,
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Thanks for watching!
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[@ClinToneCust23]

Thanks for the video..

[@TwoCherriesIns]

You Are very welcome

[@cecilomar]

I'm in the middle of trying to make my first piece and I'm starting with the neck because I'm more afraid of it than the body. Thank you for making this video.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

It's a more challenging part to make, and a good place to begin. If you can master it, the rest of the build is downhill. Good luck 🍀

[@josephmitchell204]

Thanks for sharing.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Thank you!

[@dod2520]

Great informative video. Thank you.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Thanks

[@vanshankguitars]

I almost hit the buy now button on a CNC over the holidays. I just don't have the room right now. So I'm living vicariously through your videos... for now.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

It's a lot more work once you get it. A lot of folks don't stick with it. If you're determined you can make some great stuff.

[@LutherDesigns]

Excellent video, I cnc custom knives and use a similar method for doing two side accurately

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Thanks, I watch a lot of cnc knife content.

[@MrRuizi]

Excelente video. Y muy instructivo. Gracias.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Thanks!

[@subyouwithnotifications1024]

huge fan my friend

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Thanks

[@RichPedro]

I saw my neck in there!! kooool!!

[@TwoCherriesIns]

It's on the CNC now!

[@Elraurko]

I don’t believe the beauty is diminished at all when maple is quartersawn. The detail changes in my opinion for the better with more intricate tighter lines

[@TwoCherriesIns]

It's a personal choice, many people agree with you, if you pay attention, you rarely see this choice made by makers, for several reasons.

[@billysmether6237]

Cut dowel dowels on side 1 (at least 2). You can place them outside the cutting area. Copy the dowel holes from side 1 to side 2. Side 1 drill holes for dowels only. Side 2 drill the holes in the deck, NOT YOUR PART. Do not change your X and Y coordinates after this point. Z ok (height bit). For side 2 insert dowels in side 1 holes, flip piece and place piece with dowels into the holes in the deck. Your done run side 2. Perfect alignment.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

I get this comment all the time. Locating pins work great, if the part you are making is the same every time. I make custom designs that are different sizes, scarf joints, varied headstock sizes each time. The set-up method I use is just as accurate as indexing pins, can adapt to any size and shape, and its also faster, not that that really matters to me. If they work for you, that's great, for me I need something that is more adaptable to varied form factors.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@LeanOnYourDreams That's an extra step, more time, more stock, same results. If it works for you, great; the parts I make are wildly different in shape and size; it just doesn't work.

[@octavivo]

For those of us who make acoustic stringed instruments, quarter-sawn wood is always the most stable, and therefore the most preferable. As the image in your video shows, it's also relatively wasteful and labor-intensive because the pieces go increasingly off-quarter and become smaller in size the further the cut is from the center line. The rift-sawn log should probably be labeled the radially-sawn log. I think the "rift" term comes from mills that specialize in cutting clapboards and wooden shingles, in which case rift-sawing is the most economical way to cut and produces the greatest yield, although it requires some special machinery and is the most labor-intensive. But, again, the image you posted shows that every piece of rift-cut wood is always exactly on the quarter, and also helps to show why large pieces of true quarter-sawn wood are so hard to find. I think the confusion comes because the quarter-sawn log is actually a log that is quartered first and then sawed. I always look forward to these videos. While I am an experienced luthier, I am a total newbie when working with CNC machines, Mach3, and Fusion360. The practical nature of the videos and the chance to see the process taking place is more helpful than 20 exchanges on a bulletin board. Keep on experimenting and showing us the solutions you come up with. In case no one's ever told you, there are folks out here putting this information to use.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Thank you for the great insight and kind words.

[@billleach2492]

I love your take on milling the headstock (and everything else really). Just curious if the Fender style necks get a standard Fender style nut with a nut slot, or a Gibson style nut at the edge of the fretboard? Usually I would do that Fender "scoop" behind the nut after the fretboard is installed with a bandsaw and a drum sander that I built specifically for that shape. Looking for ways to let my CNC do as much as possible.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

It's the standard fender style nut. I shape the scoop after they are glued together, I use the drum sander.

[@dantahoua]

I use a similar way but I always have problem with scallop path, don't know why, it always seems to mill more than needed and always leave big mark near the entry or output. (I use very small passage and remove not that much material so it should not be a rigidity machine problem...)

[@TwoCherriesIns]

With scallop, you have to choose "inside-out" or "outside-in" carefully. The method I use here cuts a heavier cut on the fist pass. I drop the feed rate to 50% during this pass. I have had issues with the inside out. Logically it would be a more even cut per pass, but the wood near the heal is unsupported and ships out.

[@davidalan6701]

What are your thoughts on making a solid one-piece guitar on the CNC?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

It can certainly be done. I made an electric mandolin that way.

[@xfup]

you need index pins and a vacuum pump, 3M makes 2 sided tape that is easier to deal with than the masking tape and super glue trick. Pins and a vacuum pump would save you a lot of time though.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Pins would be specific to this neck model. I make custom necks and rarely more than one or two of a type. Fixed setups like that wouldn't work for me. The 3M tape is expensive and not as reliable as my method. I can burnish the tape into the spoil board and the part; that's not possible with double-sided tape. My method is cheap, very reliable, and I can customize it infinitely.

[@xfup]

@@TwoCherriesIns 3m tape is $2 a roll and works well with my shopsabre at 600 ipm

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@xfup The least expensive double-sided tape is $5 for a tiny roll. I buy masking tape in packs of 9 for $16. the five-dollar rolls are 1.6 yards long, making it $0.52 per foot. The masking tape ends up at $1.77 per roll, each at 60 yards, making it $0.08 per foot. I am doubling each foot, so it works out to about 20 cents per foot. I can burnish each side into the part and spoil the board; This can only be done with one side of double-sided. If you add the superglue in, it's costing me about $0.25 per foot. The difference between $0.25 and $0.52 is not consequential if you're only cutting a little bit. When I started milling a lot more, I had to find a way to make it less expensive, and this works great. I used double-sided tape for a while, and it works, it's just more expensive.

[@AmmarRaadAly]

is that nils frahm in the music ?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Not sure, this came from the KZbin music library I believe. These days I use oak studio.

[@stevenpaul6216]

Good job man. What's your tool change process? Hard to find info for fusion/mach3 together...

[@TwoCherriesIns]

That's a good question! It's not as difficult as it seems. When you post-process partial or whole setups, the tool change command is inserted in g-code were needed by Fusion360. When you're running the program in Mach3, and the tool change comes up, the program will wait for you to change the bit and re-zero the Z-axis. After you get the new bit in and zeroed press cycle start, and you're back at it. There are a couple of settings in Mach3 you have to set to get this to happen; I think they are set this way by default.

[@ruicosta3094]

@@TwoCherriesIns What post-processor do you use in fusion for the mach 3?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@ruicosta3094 My machine uses Mach3 running a CNC router parts machine; There is a post for it included in fusion360 "CNC Router Parts (Mach3Mill) / cncrouterparts"

[@ruicosta3094]

@@TwoCherriesIns Thank you. I have a cnc-step high-z. The Fusion360 has the post processor, but not for mach 3. Just for kinetic NC. I thinkI will have to buy that hardware/software to make it work.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@ruicosta3094 I don't have any experience with that one: It looks like it runs pretty generic G-code. I would try a few posts running without any stock and the spindle off to see what works.

[@c21delta94]

What cnc machine do you use?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

This is a CNC router parts 2448

[@patruddiman4228]

I would like to hire you to do that for me if I could.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Completely booked at the moment

[@jesserichard2268]

How thick does your maple plank need to be ?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

For this model, or for a standard telle?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

I make most of my neck blanks, so I'm milking them to the dimensions of the setup stock in fusion 360

[@FreddysFrets]

@2:04 You have that backwards. The quartersawn face is where the figure is most intense.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

I'm sorry, but you are not correct. If this were the case, the amount of material on the market would be, by the nature of the way the material is milled, 25% of what is available. All of the neck stock in this video is plane or flat sawn. The vast percentage of figured maple prepared today is flat sawn stock. There is very little in the way of quarter sawed material available, and of that, the percentage of material that's figured is small. While there is some unusual figure in the quarter sawn face, it is not as dramatic as the flat sawn face. I can understand that your preference maybe this kind of figure; however, this does not, by any means, make it more dramatic.

[@FreddysFrets]

@@TwoCherriesIns I'm not talking about what's on the market or how much quartersawn material with figure is available. I'm simply stating that in a piece of figured maple, the figure is most intense on the quartersawn face. Do some research.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@FreddysFrets I am showing a quarter and flat swan face figure in the video. I'm not sure what research is necessary. If you have a source to sight by all means, do so. What you propose is some mythical stock that is unavailable but superior in some way. I find this kind of idea odd. I looked through your videos and found beautiful LP tops, all of which are plain or flat sawn. When looking for an example of a figured neck stock in your videos, I found a tele neck that you were hand carving; it was also flat sawn stock. I am unable to locate an example of the quarter sawn figure in your videos. It's not strange in that the material is not accessible. I wonder how you determined that this figure is superior as I don't see any example of it in your work.

[@FreddysFrets]

@@TwoCherriesIns I think perhaps we may just be misunderstanding each other. I certainly don't want to argue with a fellow luthier! But let's figure this out.....where in the video do you show the quarter and flat sawn face? I see you have three boards, all flatsawn....sure,two of them have some figuring. If you look at the edge of one though (the 1" thick section) the figure will be much more intense on that face. That would be closer to quarter. Just the same way medullary rays appear exactly on the quarter.

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@FreddysFrets This is my point; on edge, the close to quarter sawed figure tuns into radiating linear lines running across the face. This type of figure is quite rare these days, seen mostly in violin family instruments. On the flat sawn face, it's more dynamic with waves on two accesses.

[@jimbucket2996]

Is that you playing mandolin? This music is awesome!

[@TwoCherriesIns]

I planned to record all the music for this channel at one point. There are quite a few complications, the biggest being the volume of content I have produced. I use the KZbin audio library for all the music.

[@patruddiman4228]

Would you be interested in designing a half paddle head fender style neck for me in a vetric aspire capable file?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

I only use fusion 360, vectic aspire is not capable of the adaptive and scallop toolpaths I use.

[@patruddiman4228]

@@TwoCherriesIns can fusion save files as stl

[@TwoCherriesIns]

@@patruddiman4228 yes, but you lose a lot of resolution, and all the curves are converted to triangular faces. In turn to follow these faces the gcode is choppy and not smooth.

[@Metalbass10000]

Do you really feel that quarter sawn wood is somehow, inherently, less attractive, to some level of significance, than flat sawn wood? Do you feel this way about all types, all species, of woods (hard woods, figured woods, or otherwise)?

[@TwoCherriesIns]

If the beauty of quarter-sawn figured stock exceded flat sawn, there would be a market for it, and there is not. Sure, quarter sawing lumber is wasteful, and on some level, it is irresponsible to mill highly figured maple this way, but I'm not talking about some mythical lumber industrial complex. You don't find stock milled this way because there is a more dynamic movement of the figure on the flat sawn face. All you have to do is to turn your flat sawn stock on edge and decide whether you prefer that kind of figure. The reason for using quarter sawn is for structural integrity, not figure. For this reason, we find very straight grain quite bland material milled into quarter sawed blanks. It doesn't look amazing but it is incredibly stable. Lumber mills make products that we buy and the reality is that we are not buying quarter sawed figured stock. It doesn't even come down to preference, where are you going to get a 5A quarter was flame maple blank?

[@xfup]

Given the look of quartersawn lumber, I wouldn't go out of my way to pay $200 of a piece of wood and not maximize the effect of paying large sum of money. The Stratocaster and telecaster neck pockets are typically 2.187" wide multiplying that by .0014 * 6 (0.0183" ) should give your the average yearly movement of the piece of wood used to make your neck. But that is only if the climate the guitar is stored causes the wood to fluctuate moisture 6%. If you buy a WDmusic neck then no need to really take much care for it. HOWEVER, I suggest regulating the humidity in the room your guitar is being kept should you have a neck worth $600. The average cost of a guitar is $300, so you might want to take appropriate action to maintain the piece of art you pay $3000 for??? I say you, but that really should apply to anyone reading this.

[@musiciansoftheworld3847]

tried to see it. Seems more like cinematographic project. had to leave...

[@TwoCherriesIns]

Well, that's a new one; I suppose I should apologize for your misunderstanding, or was it an assumption? While many folks do learn from my content, its purpose, and I can see where you might be led astray, as many are, is entertainment, and in that particular aspect, your comment is more of a compliment than a criticism. I have moved on, skipped, and even just turned off the app for a lot of content that I didn't like on KZbin. I have never taken the time to comment on any of them. Maybe it's just my point of view, but you're asking for a reply when you make these comments. If you didn't like the content, I have a hard time understanding why you would put up a comment that would keep you coming back, showing the algorithm that this is exactly the kind of content you want to see more of; maybe I'm reading into it too much.