Outsourcing, cnc and entering the future

Sven

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I don't know if I've worn down your ears complaining about my rickety router table and my near lethal work when making the plywood skeletons for my resonator ukes. Suffice to say, I am very happy I still have all my fingers. Making the skeletons took a long time and consistency could have been much better.

So I thought of making them on my brother-in-law's cnc router. But it is at his friend's garage and his friend is a cranky one so I didn't feel very welcome.

By then I had made a 3d model in the computer and was talking about it with a carpenter I use in my day job, and he wanted to have a go at the model. Fast forward a few months and hey presto - he delivered last week.

I'll include a pic and a link as usual. No wait, that'll be two pics. One of the shiny new skeletons and one from the bad old days.

Now:

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Never again:

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Link to blog post about the new ones:
http://www.argapa.blogspot.se/2016/03/a-great-leap-revealed.html
 
Hallelujah Sven. Now use that press to make veneered top and back plates! As I have a couple of concert resos to make to use up my bespoke covers, I will show you in a video next week how to perfectly book match veneers etc for said purpose this making an all ply model! As far as the skeleton design goes, where did we get this from? My first reso was done like this after someone posted the method here in UU or was it Cosmos? Question? why have you used dowels? A rectangular pin would have been less hassle to fit and trim wouldn't it?
 
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Hi Pete, the skeleton design came from a bloke with some excellent ideas and a very high self esteem. I think he posted here but I forget.

The dowels, I used them since I did so on my home made skeletons - all my drill bits are round! So I just translated it into the computer model. And it's very quick work to take the excess off with a hand plane before glueing the sides, that leaves a flat surface maybe 4 or 5 mm wide. Also it comes to me now, them being round keeps them from falling out in the pressing process, once in the holes they cannot go anywhere.
 
love your stuff sven.....

I too am trying to use the cnc milling as part of my making. I also use rhino software in my day job in jewellery modelling.

Its good to enjoy the process and to think about the possibilities of the cad stuff.... its 'what if' that gets me excited with cad and design.

If your ever stuck in rhino ( your probs not as your a cleaver chap by the looks of it) feel free to ask me anything or to send a file or something... I ve used rhino work most days for about 10 years now.


Your parts look really nice and cleanly done and its nice to see!

r
 
Fanx so much for the offer Robin, I've got Rhino down sort of. It was the translation to something called G-code or similar that was best handled by the professionals. I'm an architect so Autocad is my main tool, Rhino I use for simple modeling. For advanced modeling we use Revit, but then I'm mostly the backseat driver behind one of my young employees. Sounds boring? Well why do you think I need building ukuleles in my spare time...
 
ah so that explains the rather tidy and very well organised workshop space with attention to all aspects!

so the cad is plain sailing then! and it explains why the carpenters you use can do such nice stuff!

i convert the rhino to the g code with software called v carve once got the hang of it its fairly easy to use.

As for the boredom I know what you mean as the jewellery side and printing it is not so satisfying after a few years even the big high value stuff.

The ukes are like architecture I guess a mini enclosure of space with attention to finish and materials!

r
 
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