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Getting my 3D printer soon. Anyone else doing this for jigs, cauls and tools? I'm getting excited. I'm taking Rhino a CAD course and one of the students printed up a sample of a headstock design he did. What a sweet way to get a visual.

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I’m on the path. There are just some things that are better to print than to CNC or laser.

What did you buy?


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So we bought a 3D printer too Bamboo and Dave wanted one after hearing the discussions on the Looth Group which is in our shop these days.

To be clear I was not against getting a 3D printer but I did push back that in my opinion much of what I see these used for in lutherie so far is "make work" for the machine (and operator).

I suggested to Dave get one if you want one and get one because you are excited about it, want to learn something new and YES they are cool. My academic training was as a programer and systems analyst so I'm no stranger to computer coding, etc.

My push back was against notions such as you can bang out a caul faster than you can make one.

No you can't....

I told Dave that for nearly 20 years I've watched him put his safety classes on his head, grab his Starrett calipers and off he goes into the tool room to grab some scrap wood and bang out a caul for an obscure bracing pattern on some guitar.

He emerges from the tool room often 2 - 3 minutes later with the caul. The caul either fits perfectly or back he goes for a mod and he's back again in no time. Once he uses the caul or I do for the intended purpose someone writes on it what it's for, into a drawer it goes and we may never remember that we even have one for this purpose.

But the point is in 5 minutes tops and we have a custom caul that is reusable, etc. The printer takes much longer than that, has associated costs and when you factor in the learning curve.... it has associated "opportunity costs" where one's time might be spent doing billable hours and/or meeting promised client deadlines you have to learn to code, keep stock of the wicks, now you have to navigate tariffs and trade wars too since our's is a Chinese machine I think.

I think we have $2 - 3K invested in our's so far too which is not a problem for us but that caul sure is getting expensive....

Anyway we have one and so far it has improved my life exactly 0% but again that's OK to me. I just would appreciate the justifications being more honest and that is that it's new, it's fun, it's something to do and yes you can share programs with other luthiers who lost money on their own taking the time to squirt out something that you can often make in the tool room in 1/10th the time.

I sound old don't I...... Hesh is a buzz kill.....

So I'm on the fence if a 3D printer has much utilitarian value in a traditional luthier's repair shop but yes they are cool and fun for sure and I'm of the belief that when you stop learning..... you die.

Now that Dave has had the machine for several months he says the same thing I just said, you can likely do many things faster and even easier conventionally without 3D printing but they are cool, fun and it's something to do.

Now if it would make my lunch I would buy one and put it in my kitchen for sure.

PM sent to Hesh.

I got a Bambu A1 Combo which includes a 4 spool filament feeder/holder and misc printing plates. All in about 1k not too bad. If you're part of the Looth group they have a section where you can download some luthier related items. Very useful if you're just getting started with 3D. The CNC machine I want is 20k. Which isn't happening until a later date so I figured I'd get started with the 3D printer. Having a lot of fun with guitar and ukulele designs in Rhino.

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Hesh part of the wonderful aspect of 3D printing and CNC is I can start the task, walk away and do something else while it's doing the work for me. I agree I can whip up a caul in less than 5 minutes flat but also my hands are getting trashed from 40 years as a home builder and going on 13 yers loothing. I have a bit of arthritis so it's nice to be able to cut down on the physical workload. Not to mention like Brad I geek out on tools, jigs and other technology and love the aspect of CAD with design.

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Yeah, printing is pointless for something you can hack out in a few minutes by hand. But if your desired object is more complicated, or you need several of them, it can be a real time saver. For example my tuners need a little plastic washer under the head of the screw to reduce wear and friction, and I can print 100 of them in a few minutes. No need to worry about what sizes are commercially available. And the blue plastic parts for my router base were much faster to print than to make any other way. Not to mention the knobs and power supply parts on the lathe you can see in the photo there.

Bambu is kind of a skeezy company though. A simple Ender 3 in an enclosure will do almost everything the average person needs for a couple hundred bucks, and it's open source and designed in a way that's easily modifiable. I recommend its first job to be printing a bracket to convert it to direct extrusion I've had terrible experience with bowden extruders causing a time lag between X/Y motion and extruder motion.


Indeed. I'd really like to have a CNC machine that can run autonomously too. Mine requires constant interaction, so while it does produce fine results, it's not really practical for making anything in significant quantity.

Yeah I know I have a "Gluck Puck" sitting on my bench that we squirted out and that is potentially useful but I've also worked on thousands of Fender instrument with slotted tuners without one and that never stopped me.

My buddy Evan Gluck was an OLFer too back in the day until he could not stand you guys any longer. He's New York Guitar Repair by the way and far smarter than I am.

I say again they are cool and I'm not against them. My point is when folks attempt to justify one as improved efficiencies in a loothier... shop I don't agree. In fact the machine, our's was about $2K is kind of slow in my opinion and the easy bake oven might be faster....

I do like the programming (I like anything I can learn) and the library is cool too.

Arthritis sucks I'm doing extra strength Tylenol at this very minute and just got home from work. Fixed three this morning including a dreaded R*ckenbacker. But fortunately the R*ck, they have two truss rods... they both worked today - gotta love it...

Anyway if it's a time saver to you great and I hope it helps with the arthritis. Again I'm not against them as I have said now what, six times.... I just push back on the justification that it improves efficiencies. I'm a former Six Sigma Black Belt and know a few things about efficiencies.

Better get one soon tariffs are on the way....

The boys have been running a Bambu X1 Carbon for a couple years, along with a larger resin printer, CO2 laser cutter/engraver, and the usual metal fab stuff like TIG and gas welders, brakes, presses, and metal band saw. I have Mr. Stock's old Ender 3 S1 Pro with all the spendy upgrades, and a Bambu is on the shopping list once I mentally overcome my aversion to expensive 'wants' as opposed to true needs (e.g., designer shoes). The genesis of Mr. Stock's initial purchase was a large multi-material project for an aviation advocacy org that 'required' he obtain a laser cutter/engraver, FDM printer, resin printer, and SMD/PCB component-level fabrication capability. The super-creepy mutant baby hand-looking things are tree-style supports for what are very tall, thin print jobs that are happily done on the Bambu and a trial on the Ender or similar moving-bed printers.







My semi-informed opinion: Cool hobby, but any claim of increased efficiency is not on the first or third or even the tenth copy of an article produced - it is in having someone else put in the design/engineering/printing effort on your behalf. Yes - I have used it for customer projects, but they were more of an iterative design/develop nature versus something like a caul, which is a low-unknowns project. I would suggest that where the overhead and direct labor associated with FDM printing capability may be partially subsidized or offset against a non-luthiery use, the 3D print thing makes some sense:

- The non-recurring cost (e.g., printer, modeling software, training, accessories) can be spread across multiple small shops or across a dozen or so benches in a single operation (see below)

- A customer exists that wishes to pay a good portion/all of the non-recurring investment and all of the recurring cost for his/her project (aka: a unicorn)

- (Most common) The printer and all the associated non-recurring is associated with something outside of small shop luthiery, which is the case with the boys. Other interests drive the printer, laser cutter/engraver, etc., and use in support of instrument repair/build is tertiary in nature.

My own user experience re: FDM printers:

If you wish to immerse yourself in the 3D printing hobby and love a good deep dive down into the science and engineering of the thing, the Ender is a near-perfect platform, as you will by default learn all about the ins and outs of design features, which upgrades to choose, materials handling, common and less-than-common errors, etc. If you - on the other hand - simply wish to print 3D objects in a variety of materials, get a Bambu or one of the recently introduced similar advanced prosumer machines (e.g., made-in-EU Prusa Core One) and be done with it.

Mr. Stock and Mr. Morelli exemplify the divide in thinking on the subject. After I expressed interest in in the then-underutilized Ender sitting in the back room of the shop, Mr. Stock suggested that I should just "...cut out all that hobbiest <stuff> and just get an X1-Carbon." Mr. Morelli - who apparently cannot resist a deep dive on tech subjects of interest - extolled the wonders of the Ender as a learning platform, if not as a 3D printer, and sent links to a few dozen video tutorials. How illuminating.

Use Cases:

Ric 12: I recently picked up a job from Greenridge, which was to convert a Rickenbacker 12-string electric from modern sealed-back tuners to the more vintage-look Ric-branded box-back tuners. Given the propensity of these tuners to fail without adequate support of the tuning post shaft, I 3D-printed nylon 10.05mm (OD) x 6.05mm (ID) by 16mm (OAL) shaft bushings and used the CO2 laser to cut marine plywood (Brunzeel meranti) end caps to retain those bushings. While the customer was billed for some fraction of an hour, that did not offset the trial and error to find the correct settings for the plywood, so a net loss.



Finish Bench Paper Roll Spacers: Larger (over 150 LF) butcher paper rolls use 3" ID cardboard cores, versus the 1-1.5" ID cardboard cores of smaller rolls. Mr. Stock designed (in AutoCAD's Fusion 360) and printed a dozen end caps to distribute to local shops that were using some version of his overhead paper dispensor. Again, a net loss versus some scrap plywood and a circle cutter in a drill press, but a nice give-away to fellow luthiers, woodworkers, and refinishers.



TIG Welding Electrode Holder: Not something I have much experience with, but developed for printing in ABS filament (higher temperature tolerance). The design was provided to a local welding supply (welding gear, consumables, and gases). That shop had a local print farm run a few hundred copies to be used as repeat customer give-aways. Mr. Stock did the design to support his own TIG habit, so the good will generated with that local supplier was a nice, albeit largely intangible benefit.



Summary: The Ender or similar is a great way to get your feet wet in 3D printing tech. The Bambu (or similar modern no-fuss core XY printer) is the way to go if you just want to successfully print stuff in PLA, PETG, ABS, and engineering filaments without much investment in the way of intellectual time and energy.

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Thanks for all of your insights everyone.

I’ve just been offered the use of a cheap hobbyist 3D printer for free but at this point I know that I need to turn down the offer. It would be an irresistible distraction from my ongoing CNC mill & router based build process.

At some point down the road maybe…

I'm more old school, but maybe........... if it was 4D ??