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Cnc bed size?
For thise thst use a cnc, do you feel a 4×4’ would be much better than 4×2 for looth purposes? I habe a space where a 4×2 can fit now, but id have to rearrange my shop go make room for a 4×4.
Ian Davlin The Looth Group12 Comments-
James, this is a great question, but I wanted to let you know that you posted it on the timeline. The timeline is constantly being added to making it likely that it will be hard to find again. A better spot for this question would be on our forum under the CNC subheading. Here is the link for that.
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@ianhatesguitars thanks, Ian. I didn’t realize that. I’ll post it in the proper area.
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I only make acoustics, not electrics, so I can’t comment on the latter.
I do the soundhole, all inlays, backstrip, end wedge, headstock plate, fretboard, and the entire neck on a CNC. Mine (Laguna IQ) is 3′ in Y and 2′ in X and that is plenty. If you are going to do necks and don’t want to go the double sided route, you will need plenty of Z height.
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@patreon_120195814 that’s great to hear. The Laguna iq is on my short list of cncs that I’m considering.
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I have had the Shapeoko 4XL and currently have the Onefinity Journeyman. You absolutely don’t need a 4×4′, I almost never cut anything full-size (guitar-related).
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@zwitchguitars thanks, Randy! That’s terrific to hear. The 4×2 will fit in my shop much more easily.
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@zwitchguitars how do you like the journeyman? I keep reading about the need for rigidity in a cnc and importance of ball screws. I’m not sure how important those aspects are for building acoustics where a small fraction of a millimeter probably wouldn’t matter.
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@james_huntley The journeyman was a huge step up from the Shapeoko due to the bed size and being more rigid (the Shapeoko used belts). I use the Journeyman with an ER20 air cooled spindle from PwnCNC and can’t imagine wanting to upgrade further. I do not have the additional “stiffy” rail.
While you don’t *need* fractional millimeter precision, the machine does quite well. Precision is mostly a function of speed of cut IMO, and with acoustics the wood won’t be providing tons of resistance (say, cutting a rosette).
I make the dovetail neck blocks, fretboards, sometimes I make linings, and will eventually move to making the radiused tail blocks. In all cases, you’re always going to be making micro-adjustments with a chisel or sanding anyway, so I haven’t noticed any cases where the machine isn’t accurate enough.
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@zwitchguitars thanks, Randy. I just ordered an altmill mk2 4×2. Went with a 2.2kw spindle. The downside l with this machine is the 5-7 week lead time on shipping, but I hope to use the time to learn an bit about cad/cam.
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Just my experience with onefinity but I absolutely detest the company. I think my only worse customer service experience was maybe Verizon. I have never been so annoyed with the communications with a company.
Long story short they sold the machine with a controller that they forked from an open source controller. It had (and has) massive issues, crashes routinely. They gaslit anyone who was having problems. I spent days updating, downgrading the operating system to no avail. They’ve never really fixed it, just started selling newer controllers (which also have had issues).
I would like to never deal with them again. I might try Sienci labs next time but a friend was complaining about them too. I have no idea. I would absolutely not recommend dealing with OneFinity though.
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@paulmcevoyguitars That’s a good point…if I didn’t mention it above, I got my onefinity machine used, so at <50% of retail, I’m really happy with it. The software does leave some things to be desired.
Carbide3D is a much better company AFAIK, though the machine I had (4XL) was just a beginner machine. So the *hardware* of the onefinity is considerably more rigid, and I tolerate the software
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@zwitchguitars if I could have found a used Onefinity cheap, I’d switch out the controller and I think that would make a decent machine.
I don’t like the onefinity “bring your own base” model particularly…I’d rather something that has the wasteboard support integrated into the machine. But the mechanics of the machine itself are pretty solid. Just the company sucks.
If I keep my machine at some point I may try a Sienci controller.
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