-
Looking for cnc build learning pathway.
Hey folks, so I’ve taken a basic cnc routing class at our maker space. I’ve done a very basic amount of vector drawing for making a pick guard via sendcutsend.com – I have access to a cnc machine at our maker space and would like to finally dive in a little more.
Does anyone know of or have a learning path I could use to setup a learning plan? I intend to use 360 for this because I don’t want to spend any money for now.
Thanks for any input.
5 Comments-
When I belonged to a makerspace, they had a required class to use their CNC. Maybe see if that’s available? Ideally, they’d set up your Fusion 360 instance to work with their machine.
What sort of project are you looking to build first?
-
@zwitchguitars
Hi Randy – thanks for the input. So I took the required CNC class at the space. It essentially covers how to use the CNC, and is meant primarily to cover their liability. We actually used VCarve in that class and made a simple coaster. Mostly just got a glimpse of what I need to learn – feed/speed – router bits (even that terminology changes, whew). Zero Fusion 360 learnings.As far as projects – I guess my question is really more about laying out an order of learning as if it were course (or maybe recommend a guitar focused course?). My end goal is to build necks,fretboards, and bodies which I would like to use for teaching classes at the maker space. if you were starting to learn today, what would you build first, second, third, fourth, and what would you focus on learning (e.g; certain tools in 360) and in what order?
It’s sort of a big question so please don’t feel you need to answer it 🙂 – Perhaps just what would be your very first project and first things to learn in fusion 360?
thanks again! Cheers
-
-
@kalimar Perfect, so you’re not starting from scratch 🙂
Since it sounds like you need to learn Fusion 360 first, I can’t recommend Austin Shaner enough:
youtube.com/@austinshaner
He approaches guitar design and building from the Fusion 360 perspective, so watching his videos will get you a long way to where you need to be.
After spending your days ingesting that, I think the first thing I’d do is be comfortable making trays and other simple 2D objects on the CNC. There’s really only two ideas there: it’s either a pocket (i.e. a hole of some kind, like pickup route or neck pocket) and a profile/contour (cutting something out). When you are comfortable with that, you can easily transition into making a Telecaster style body. If you use a top-loading bridge, it’s literally just a slab of wood with no contours!
Of course, if you don’t want to use a top-loader bridge, the next idea is how to do two-sided milling, so that you can accurately cut the string ferrule holes on the back of your blank.
Once you can get to that point where you can comfortable cut out a Tele-style/plank body, then you can start thinking about 3D carving (necks, body contours, etc.). I’d start by learning to do body contours first…they are multi-Z-level, so takes a bit more thinking than just cutting out the plank, but it’s not truly “3D carving” as I think about it.
When you get this far, then you’ll be ready to tackle neck carving. It’s a lot, but Austin has videos on this too. With the comfort you have from the above projects, you’ll start to understand what you need to do (i.e. still need a contour cut for the outline, still need a pocket for the truss rod slot, etc.), but then you’ll get into cutting convex surfaces using a ball-nose cutter.
Which is all to say…start making projects and watching YouTube! And asking smaller questions here, I’m happy to help. Not an expert, but certainly know enough to help others.
Best,
Randy
1 -
AMAZING. THANK YOU
-
Austin Shaner’s videos on youtube to me are still the gold standard of fusion guitar design.
Learning to run a CNC is sort of a different skillset. You need the
CAD – Design
CAM – Programming
and then
CNC – how to run the machine and do workholding.But Austin’s videos are the way to go as far as learning fusion. He’s not making new videos but his discord is still active and a great place to ask questions.
1
-
