budget bassist

Yep, swamp ash, a harder wood would probably route a lot cleaner like you say. I think I need to play with the feeds and speeds as well, I'm sure I could speed it up loads. Anyway, I did a little sanding today, managed to get the top edge from looking like this: [attachment=172224:IMG_4325.jpg] To this: [attachment=172225:IMG_4327.jpg]

Just thinking about this, if I were to do this again, I may just use the CNC router to cut the outline, neck pocket, pickup and electronics cavities etc. and then just use a plunge router to cut the radius on the edges, and then just use a spokeshave/orbital sander/whatever to cut the stomach and forearm chamfers. Using the CNC router for the whole thing was a great technical exercise, but it just takes so long, and the edges are still really rough. Perhaps if I were to do something highly contoured it would be worth the time, but for regular slab bodies, it just doesn't seem worth it.

Cheers, very helpful

Got too excited and started doing a bit of sanding today. The front is covered in very fine diagonal cnc marks, so I'm going to give up on those until I can get to an orbital sander on monday, as they'll take forever to remove otherwise. The sides are coming up reasonably well just hand sanding though.

Finished routing the body out today. The jig was a tiny bit out, but it doesn't really matter, just means a little more tidying up to do on the edges. Some of the edges are a little rough, so I'm going to have to do plenty of sanding. I got it home and stuck the donor neck and pickup on there and they fit great, there can't be more than a 0.5mm gap around either of them. Excellent start! I'll probably start sanding etc. on monday. [attachment=172179:IMG_4313.jpg] [attachment=172180:IMG_4319.jpg] I won't be using that pickup by the way, just something I had lying around. I'll be sticking in a SD Basslines. I've got a Keen Electronics 3 band pre to go in as well, just need to get that wired up and working. As for the neck, I think I'll sand that back and oil the whole thing. The black headstock is hideous, and I don't like the plasticky finish. I plan to design and build my own neck at some point in the near future. I'm thinking maple on maple.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1410628896' post='2551452'] Here's my Tribute M-2000 which I got a few months back. Its really hard to capture the real colour in a photo, it really is "transparent" black. Whilst I'm here, let me say a big thanks to Matt (Neepheid) who let me try his one before I ordered. Needless to say I was sold within about five seconds of trying his. Cheers Matt! Lovely bass this, the neck is fantastic and much comfier for my hands than the L-2000 tributes I tried which were just a bit too chunky. The preamp is incredbily versatile and you can get the full range of boost on each knob without the sound distorting (my last bass would distortwell before you reached the maximum level). My only real complaint is that the output is insanely hot which makes swapping between this and my passive Yamaha a real pain. Although to be honest this bass is so nice that the Yamaha has definitely been relegated to "backup". I think at somepoint I'll try monkeying with the pickup heights a bit to try and tame it slightly. [url="http://s978.photobucket.com/user/uncle_psychosis/media/guitar/M2000/DSC_0594_zps77138497.jpg.html"][/url] [/quote] That's gorgeous!

Starting the back this morning, photo of it getting started on the roughing pass: [attachment=172142:IMG_4311.jpg] I also fitted up the neck and a pickup off the donor guitar (cheapo shine SG copy) a friend lent me to take measurements from etc., fit lovely and snug! Going to do this one for him next I think. [attachment=172141:IMG_4308.jpg]

Dowels in the bridge area could have been a good idea, I didn't think of that. It would locate the body, but you couldn't secure it that way. The router may pass over any surface of the thing on either side, so I'd rather not risk sticking screws in any of the surfaces it may touch for fear of ruining the bit (and potentially the whole piece of work), even if you get it in nice and deep, i'd rather not risk it. This is why i mentioned screwing it to a bit of MDF from the underside that has already been machined, and then screwing the MDF to the bed, if that makes sense? I'm aware that some do secure the body through the neck pocket, though I'm not sure I'd like to.

Haha, it is a bit of a learning curve, but it makes a lot more sense once you give it a go! I'll drop you a message

Oh, for anyone thinking of doing this, I'll quickly explain how we flipped the slab to machine the other side. Basically, we drew up a 2D CAD file which was the shape of the outline of the slab at its longest points, and told the router to drill three holes on each long edge, parallel and symmetrical to each other, all the way through the slab and about 10mm into the router bed. We then used 12mm dowels to locate the slab in the bed, and then screwed it down and zeroed to the bottom right corner. The idea being that when we come to flip the wood, the dowels will relocate and the slab will stay square and the router will retain it's zero point. To complicate things, we had to shift the design 15mm to one side in the slab so as to fit it all on. The easiest way for us to do this was to tell the program to cut the shape in the centre of the block of material, and then shift the router zero point +15mm on the Y axis. This means we then had to shift it -30mm when we flipped it, in order to retain the correct point of reference. As we were screwing the slab down, it needed to stay in contact with the body so that it doesn't move around when it's nearing completion, so we added "tabs" in the program, just a couple about 20mm wide. This means the finished body will sit inside a frame of material when done, and then I will have to cut it out and sand the tabs flush. I'm sure there are probably better ways of doing this, but it was the easiest way to do it for us. For example, I've seen someone who cuts the front of the guitar first, then mounts it to a lump of MDF which it's screwed to via a block mounted in the pickup cavity. The MDF locates in some dowel holes that the original block of material was located in, in order to retain X and Y zero. The Z-axis zero is then reset for the new height, and the complete shape is cut. This is something I'd like to experiment with as it would leave totally clean edges. This all makes much more sense if you look at the above photos by the way!

Yeah, I wasn't sure about it at first (it's 3-piece and I'd have preferred 2-piece), but I really like it now!

How did you apply the tru oil? Was it just with a rag, or did you use wet and dry or anything? cheers

Cheers guys! It's a lot rougher than it looks, some of the edges are very well finished, but some are quite fuzzy, for want of a better word. I think this is mostly down to the grain pattern. It'll take a lot of hand finishing I think, but still much better/faster than if I had done the whole thing by hand!

Some more porn:

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1411123832' post='2556659'] Yeah I thought that decision might save you a fair bit of time! Any idea how much hand finishing you'll need? [/quote] Hopefully not much more than a couple of hours with some sandpaper. It's started the finishing pass now, and you can see the cuts, but they're fairly fine. It's mostly just the sides of the body that will be a little rough I think. I'll try and get some close-up photos when it's done.

So here's a photo during the roughing pass of the front of the body: [attachment=172082:IMG_4302.jpg] This took about an hour in the end, saving about half an hour off last time. And here's the polystyrene guitar body: [attachment=172081:IMG_4301.jpg]

Started cutting the body today, managed to save lots of time due to the router following the sillhouette of the body rather than cutting out loads of dead space, as a few of you recommended, so estimated total time for the front half is now 3:11. I'll get it finished tomorrow probably, so around 6 hours total, which isn't too bad. Previous estimate for one side only was 8 hours! Photos coming shortly

Interesting that the neck has the wheel style truss rod adjuster at the body end of the neck, not many basses have those... Could it be something a bit more special than you first thought?

That was just what the router software decided to do. As I said, the guy who works there helped me set it up as I'm not familiar with the software, and I get the feeling he isn't either. I need to have a proper play with it, but unfortunately I've not really had time yet. I've no idea what Fanuc is.

Love those old 'rays. Still not that uncommon a sight, that one is very much genuine, as Stingraypete said.

Well it [i]looks[/i] playable!

Nice lump of wood turned up a minute ago!

Sorry, I thought I posted a link. That map looks up to date, though how you found it I've no idea, that website is rubbish!

[quote name='DorsetBlue' timestamp='1409820176' post='2543576'] Worth noting for us South Westerners that Exeter Library seems to have one of these Fab Labs too: [url="http://fablabdevon.org"]http://fablabdevon.org[/url] [/quote] Seems relatively well equipped that one, too!

Ah sweet, any tips?! We used the router to cut the polystyrene down square, then cut an offcut of plywood with a square hole the same size as the polystyrene and just wedged it in with the ply screwed to the bed, then zeroed the router to the edge of the polystyrene. Not quite sure how it's going to work with the wood, as it won't be perfectly square. Perhaps get the router to cut some holes in the corners to line up with some dowels in the bed...