it’s been a while… I’ve been thinking about this project for quite some time now but I wasn’t sure whether I should go ahead with it or not.
A couple of days ago I finished the CAD drawings and decided to pull the trigger - hereby I give you:
The Maslowcaster, a custom electric guitar made on the Maslow CNC!
The first piece I cut today looks kinda sorta promising:
Be aware that this is still highly experimental. I am NOT a luthier and this whole thing might end up having the tonal qualities of a wet rag. Still, I’d like to find out how far my false bravado will get me (as always).
So this is part number two: the bottom half of the body. It’s mirrored so that I can do a stepped-down cutout for the electronics compartment. (Not finished yet but the cover plate is meant to sit flush with the body.)
Initially I thought about doing the whole body in one piece, index it and flip it over but this seemed to be the more reasonable way to do it.
For this second piece I also slowed down the feedrate to 600 mm/min. Acacia seems to be a bit tougher than the plywood I’m used to… broke two router bits on part #1, none on the second (yet)
Have you glued up the panel? Processed it? Let’s see some of that if we could ! I’m about to attempt a glue up process and would appreciate your expertise!
To be honest - I cut that corner, I’m sorry!
This is a tabletop ‘blank’ if you will. They sell it at the local hardware store.
It was the closest I could get to actual tonewood without spending hundreds of bucks on a slab of korima or mahogany.
Oooh, that sounds like something I’ll need to follow!
My plan is to rough out the shape of the neck on the Maslow and then round it by hand.
Either that or use the Maslow to cut out a router template. As the acacia is really tough to work with, this might be a more effective solution.
You’ll notice that I’m not using the piece I cut on the Maslow. I had to learn that the thickness of the wood threw off the calibration of my machine… both the neck pocket as well as the cutouts for the pickups were noticeably wider than what I had in my CAD files.
I’ll use a flush cutting bit to trim the edge.
By the way - this build already led to the creation of two short videos as there is more tooling required than just the Maslow.
For your viewing pleasure I present: