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Hi all. Well, the bad news is that my wife had a small stroke a few days ago that gave us all a big scare. The better part of that is that although she has lost her vision to the right side (both eyes work fine but her brain is not processing the signal) it seems that it will recover after a few months. She has no other issues that we can see. For the time being she can't drive and as we live out of town with young and active boys (sports and music and friends) that can be an issue. So if her vision does not recover we will be moving into town but we are waiting for a while and hoping for the best!

So, as my re-saw is a couple of kilometres away I have not been to saw wood for a while and have been instead working on cnc skills. I have a great "tutor" in Michael Turner and he is guiding me through my journey. The other day Dave White (our friend from England and a long time friend and customer) asked if I could do a headstock logo for him for one of his commissions. It is the Leo astrological sign. It will be African Blackwood into Yew. There is always a problem with dark wood into light as the gaps are harder to hide. Anyway, in anticipation of the wood he is forwarding for this headplate I ran a test of EIR into maple. I think it turned out great and look forward to seeing the finished product in Dave's wood on his finished guitar! Here is the sample I sent him last night:





The "legs" are about .080 wide and the inlay is about 1.5" long. I am excited and will indeed be doing a lot more of this.

Thanks

Shane

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Canada

Cool stuff. Nice work on the inlay.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Looks outstanding Shane. Here's hoping your wife makes a quick and full recovery.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

Looks really good!

So, How did you hold down the EIR during machining?

What kind of clearance did you use for the inlay? Did you program that in to the cad model or did you use tool size adjustments for that?

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I held the EIR and the maple down with double back tape and used a .060 upcut spiral bit, stepping down .030 per pass so very little torque on the wood. I left a .003 gap all around (so .006 clearance) with and offset curve, the space for glue and fitting is programmed rather than tool adjusted.

Shane

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Canada

Shane I'm sorry to hear about your wife. I hope she has a full recovery.

Inlay looks great.

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Just regular carpet tape or did you use something special?

The other thought I had was that one could use a much thicker piece of stock for the inlay, cut deep but not through and liberate the piece on a table saw. A little risky though. I've done that before (with non CNC parts - possibly a ring of some sort) and kind of recall a piece disintegrating it the pocket when it hit the back teeth on the blade.

Oh, and I hope your wife has a speedy recovery!

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Nice work Shane!

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Brad
Avon, OH

Very Nice!!!!

I am sorry to hear about your wife, I wish her a full recovery. I hope your CNC work does not get too much in the way of your resaw work, we would miss the great top wood.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Shane -

Best wishes to your wife for a full recovery!

Well, the question wasn't addressed to me, but I cut a lot of inlays on my CNC and I can tell you what I've learned. First, thicker, stronger double sided tape (like the good carpet tape you can buy) doesn't work well. Although I've used a lot of this kind of tape for holding down wood when I don't have a vacuum jig set up to hold it, and it works pretty well in this way, it is too "springy" for accurate inlay cutting. I've found that the really thin, but strong clear double sided tape works well.

The other thing that I've done is to use white glue to glue the inlay to posterboard or thin plywood, and then cut through the inlay material, but not through the backing. With pearl, you can soak the backing/pearl in water and the inlays come loose. Couldn't get by with that for wood inlays, but posterboard sands off really easily. I cut the inlays so that the posterboard is facing up when they're actually inlaid (sometimes this requires reversing the inlay before cutting it). That way, when you sand the inlay flush to the surface it's inlaid in, you sand the posterboard off first.

Just my .02.

Dave

Nice CNC work my friend!

But the wives stroke !
I hope she makes a full recovery & you can handle the kids & all !
She needs ya now!
Man -"if ya didn't have bad luck-you'd have NO luck at all"

Mikey

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Mike Collins

Shane, best wishes for your wife to make a speedy and complete recovery.

Bob

Mikey!! I only have one wife! I wouldn't know what to do with more than one, I can barely keep up with this one! Anyway, Val is actually in very good spirits and will get part of the spring off of work to kick about the house and work on her garden (I hope!)

Thanks all!

Shane

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Canada

Man, sorry to hear of your wife's dilemma. Another one of life's crappier curve balls for sure. I hope she makes a full recovery. Please give her my best.

The CNC work looks great. Have you figured out how to get it to finish your guitar. Just kidding. We have to pick our battles and I know you have a lot on the go.

I know you'll make things work out well. All the best and I'll be in touch for some product in a couple of months.

Cheerio,
Danny

BTW, Got the "shake down" from your goons. They're good guys.

Andy, I used the same thin stuff that Dave talks about. I think I actually found a 2" roll and just band sawed it half to two 1" rolls a good long while ago.

Shane

Danny....I will pass the word on to the goons... ! Looking forward to talking to ya!

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Canada

Shane:

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery for your wife.

Nice work on the CNC practice. it looks great. Let us know when you are ready to add this service.

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GEO
perpetual beginner

Best wishes to your wife Shane ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Shane - best wishes to your family.....the CNC looks great....no rush with my order (really! I probably don't need any of it! I wouldn't miss it for 6-12 months). Take care of what's important first!

Laurie

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Prayers for your wife, Shane.(well,you too and the kids;I'm sure it will be a family effort)

Best wishes for your family. Not to show how little I know, but does the cnc cut both the inlay piece and the channel?

All the best to your wife and a speedy recovery.
Practice makes perfect on inlay whether it be CNC or by hand.
Looks pretty go though.

Hey Shane

All the best to your wife! I can't think of a nicer place to recover.

Nice work on the inlay!

Bob Hames