The next installment of my CAD and CAM for luthiery videos is posted. I show you how to make a 3D neck back in this one. I made around 1am, I sound like it, sorry. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj6C1Fex1FE
Tags I use a lot: CNC ⎪ Custom guitars ⎪ Electronics ⎪ Hifi ⎪
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New bass I’m designing. might not go with Jazz pickups, at least at the bridge. This is for an upcoming tutorial on CAD and CAM for luthiery.
Same neck, using Rhino’s ‘environment map’ tool to analyze the surface. This will show any kinks or weird spots. There’s a little kink where the heel meets the neck, pretty sure that’s just an artifact because those two surfaces are not yet joined. I’m using a 1/2” ball end mill for these surfaces, it won’t be there once I cut it.
I’ve been banging my head against this model for months. Finally figured out the neck heel; in earlier screenshots, the heel was much simpler, and would need some shaping after milling. I finally managed to get the transition part to be tangent on both ends, and without any weird kinks or bumps. I’m hoping all this will need is a light sanding to remove tool marks.. I’ll try a test cut soon.
Another view of the neck I’m working on in Rhino. I’ll export the 3D shapes as a .stl file and the lines and points as a .dxf, then I’ll open them in a CAM program to produce the code that drives the machine.
Modeling a 3D object to look like the real “thing” is completely different from modeling for the end purpose of CNC. Here is a guitar neck I am working on, first time doing it for the purpose of milling it out.

