WezV - building an electric with the laser cutter.

WezV

Following on from the thread where I purchased a diode laser, I'm going to do a build which uses it heavily.

The laser it a Sculpfun S30 Pro.

The guitar will be Zemaitis inspired, but with an inset maple top and different decoration rather than the usual engraved metal top.

One of the main things i wanted the laser for was more accurate marking out than I can do with my deteriorating eyesight.

So first step is to engrave the body blank with the centerline and main routes.



And whilst I was doing that I also cut some templates for the deeper body routes.

DannyP

Exciting!

DiscoStu

DannyP said:

Exciting!

Much!

WezV

I should also mention the body wood is Bosse.   Loosely related to mahogany. Closer to sapelle, but lighter in colour.

Its rather weighty, hence the chamber.  It may also get some Swiss cheese holes in other areas under the top.

CasperCaster

Watching with interest - @WezV threads are always entertaining and informative to follow.

paulnb57

Subbed, it will be interesting to see how good the laser cutter is…

WezV

paulnb57 said:

Subbed, it will be interesting to see how good the laser cutter is…

There will still be a lot done by hand, the laser is just an assistant to help me along.

It will be used for:
Templates (cutting, i'm purposely going for a template heavy design with the inset top)
Marking out body (engraving)
Marking our fretboard (engrave fret slots, outline and additional decoration.  possibly cutting it out too)
Making the inset top (cutting out and engraving additional decoration)

This is all stuff I know it will do now, but it requires me to think about my build process a bit differently.   I'm going to do all the routing and fitting of the inset top before cutting out the body the usual way

WezV

This is the top I chose. One I have had here for years.  

Not massively figured, but I don't want anything OTT as it will feature some other decoration.  

The outline is just drawn on for now to check positioning, I might flip it the other way

It's about 4mm thick, so easy to cut with the laser

I'm going to try to keep the pickup cutouts to make bobbin toppers for some homebrew P90s.

paulnb57

Bookmatched AND grain matched pickups….coool

WezV

Plus backplates and a headplate, all grain matched, but possibly not colour matched.   I may colour the top plate, but leave pickups natural... if it all works as expected

Jez6345789

Looking forward to seeing this. thanks as always

WezV

Cut the maple bits and engraved some simple decoration



Cutting went great.  Engraving needs to be sealed filled and levelled off.    Also I changed my mind on bridge before cutting and didn't reposition the decoration.   

WezV

Routed



It's a pretty good fit.  


I won't glue that on yet, will carry on working on the body first

WezV

With pickup bits and the body outline. 

Sporky

Nice. 

RocknRollDave

Wow

Roland

How many of us are thinking about getting a laser cutter?

nero1701

Roland said:

How many of us are thinking about getting a laser cutter?

me lol

WezV

Well I did make one mistake.   I should have engraved the patterns a bit deeper.
I went a bit fast and used an offset fill setting rather than the usual fill setting, which is more thorough but a lot slower

 I think it's still workable even if I have to re paint in some of the lines at a later stage... or sand them off entirely and re-engrave at a slower speed.

I think I'm going to colour the middle of the maple, maybe just leaving the outer ring and pickups natural


The laser does cut the maple really well at these thicknesses.

WezV

Now it's a body


Complete with matching wood backplates


I suppose I should start making a neck

WezV

At the moment it is 5lb 4oz - might see if I can add some more weight relief under the plate, but its starting to get into a reasonable territory despite the heavy weight body blank


the templates for back plate routes are slightly larger than the plates themselves.   The top is a friction fit, the back plates are purposely loose to allow for finish

The next laser job will likely be the fretboard