My CNC Setup Process | Fusion360 and Mach 3 | CNC Bass Guitar

[Music] it can be beautiful yes it is a machine that doesn't mean there isn't creativity in it we live in a time that allows us to use a manufacturing device as an artistic tool and this makes the possibilities even more limitless than they were before but that's not what we're here to talk about today so let's slow this down and start again [Music] a carefully planned process formulated based on experience and past performance it sounds rigid and inflexible but in reality it's continually changing and adapting to provide the best possible results at that moment yes i'm talking about the setup i gloss over this process a lot so let's take a little time to talk about it and how i got to where i am today with my cnc setup process [Music] when you start in the beginning you have to make a lot of decisions without any experience to guide you i watched hours and hours of cnc videos and i had a formula in my mind for my process i don't think i do anything today that i had in mind at the time where your process will guide you is going to be different than mine and it should be your experiences should be the key to your unique algorithm i only hope to show you some of the things that make this process simple and the learning process more enjoyable [Music] i know this is going to seem intuitive and it is the first thing to do is to take notes get a notebook that you can bring to the shop to keep what's going on organized my process is well developed and i continue to take notes i consider it a valuable resource in the beginning they will be simple things like feeds and speeds that are either too fast or too slow depths of cut that are too deep or not aggressive enough over time they will become lists of stock sizes and critical dimensions and origin indexing locations if you have these notes with you while you're working out your cam fusion 360 will populate the results of your experience into the cam settings this will make your future work simple and successful i know my cam is going to be successful i've arrived at fees and speeds and depth passes that are time tested and even so i continue to adapt and i hope to continue to do so i get questions every time i post a video like this and it's my goal to tell the story of this process so i include it folks tell me that the depth passes are too shallow or that the work i go through to cut the excess off from the outline of a shape is unnecessary i could probably use a more aggressive depth of cut on my roughing passes and the same is probably true for my finish passes i'm not doing production work and faster is not always better what i'm after is consistent results and at this point this formula is working for me as for the bandsaw outline cut i decided to try slot milling the contours on the last two base bodies and the results varied quite a bit [Music] in alder the surface finish is all right not quite as good as without full tool engagement but okay in african mahogany i paid the price the surface finish was not very good and so i learned my lesson this base happens to be african mahogany again i went back to making this relief cut it does at least two things for me one it gives the chips somewhere to go it's a challenge to extract wood chips from a half inch slot that's one and three quarter inch deep even with dust collection if you're running dust collection it isn't as big an issue second and this one is important to me the tool is only partially engaged i mean that only a fraction of the diameter of the bit is engaged this means that my finished passes are more consistent and in the end my finished surface is incredibly accurate there's only a small amount of hand work required to complete the part [Music] now we get to talk about one of the things that a lot of beginners don't know it's another skill that you will need to develop and if you already have in my opinion you're off to a good start [Music] there are a lot of tools out there that can do this for you at least in part i would encourage you to learn this skill it's an intricate part of the setup process and if you get good at it your accuracy can be as good as automated systems don't get me wrong i do use edge detection tools just not for this particular job i only work in relative coordinate systems in g-code terms g91 in relative coordinates i set the origin in fusion 360 and mirror that location on my machine by indexing from the part and the bed the other option is absolute coordinates or g90 in this system you have to place the part on the bed relative to the origin settings you've made in the cam setup absolute coordinates add a degree of difficulty to two-sided milling and for this reason i avoid it when i flip apart using relative coordinates i only have to get the part on one axis with the machine using either an edge or a center line in absolute coordinates i would have to match two accesses to accomplish the same task [Music] okay this is the part that gets everyone in a tizzy there's no reason to flip out here we're just turning the thing over all that anxiety over flipping a pancake and if you do it right every bit is satisfying i get a ton of questions about performing two-sided milling projects and rightly so it's one of the most challenging abilities to develop yes it's a skill and that's how i think about it first thing to talk about is what happens second i like to think about what milling operations will be adversely affected if the flip is inaccurate if you try to flip the part and then mill roundovers or complex geometries that in flawlessly at the profile of a shape you're going to have a difficult time this concept gets all jumbled up when milling the forms we need in string instruments i do mill the neck pocket arguably the pocket that requires the most accuracy after the flip and i do this for a reason there's always the risk of a chip out in these intersecting areas i do my best to minimize it but there is invariably a trade-off [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] take the time and learn to enjoy this part of the process in the end you will spend far more than the machine time of these parts in setup and finish work i know there are a lot of people out there that say it's easy when you use a cnc these people don't know what goes into the setup process when you work by hand or with hand guided power tools the setup work is combined and for this reason many people don't think it's a part of cnc work as you learn you realize there is just as much if not more set up with the cnc and it all has to be planned out ahead of time and well organized once you have developed these skills and put in enough time to get experience at your process milling complex shapes will be easy and fun it's going to be stressful at first as it should be it makes the satisfaction at the end that much more enjoyable thanks for watching

Channel: Two Cherries Instruments

Views: 96,129

Keywords: Woodshop, hobby, design, woodworking, shop, Art, Wood, How to, Carve, carving, make, soundboard, guitar, mandolin, violin, nyckleharpa, DIY, making a guitar, tutorial, Luthier Tips du Jour, O'Brien Guitars, guitar building, LMI, luthier, guitar making, handcrafted guitar, Dan Erlewine, StewMac, Steward McDonald, trade secrets, Frank howarth, Frank makes cnc, Frank makes, music instruments, Tomy hovington, Marius hornberger, Fusion360, CNC, CAD, CAM, CNCrouterparts, Tim Sway, Bass

Id: vxPG0sOf2gQ

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020