Oh, Mark. I watch so many CNC tutorials. You are the bomb. You and Garrett are my top picks. In this particular video, you LITERALLY addressed questions the moment they came to mind as I watched. Some have said you take to long. I think your style is perfect. So thorough, which helps anyone new to this journey. Thank you so very much, sir. I was trying to figure out how to mount a flat slab to a house with vinyl siding. 4 inch reveal, 7/16" step. Wanted the back of the sign to match the zig zag shape of the siding and sit flush. Thought about a fluting tool path. Long story short, you gave me a new path to machine this. Thanks!
I know this video is a few years old but is every bit as relevant to day as it was then. Like all your videos it is a masterclass in using Vcarve. I've used Vcarve desktop for designing one guitar body but wanted to find ways of cutting a Stratocaster style body including the front and back 'comfort' contouring. Everybody I can find on YT or elsewhere seems to either use Aspire, which I can't justify buying, or imports a 3D model from somewhere else. However, after watching your video and closely examining the drawings I have of the guitar body I've done a couple of basic tests with the moulding tool including using a curved rail for the back body cutout. I haven't cut any timber yet but the results look perfect in simulation and setting up the cuts was easy following your instructions. Apologies if you've already covered this and I've missed it in my search through your videos but I'm sure it would be a popular lesson to cover the use of the most basic version of Vcarve to do all the cutting required for a Strat style body, including all the contouring without the need for imports from anywhere else. If anyone can do it, I'm sure you can.
Many thanks for this video--exactly what I was looking for. I got a clearer understanding of the Moulding Toolpath than from any other lesson I've seen.
All of your videos are great! Thank you for all the great content. I would love to see your tips and tricks for doing inlays on the radius fret board...
Thank you Mark for your videos. Opened the world of working with software and cnc, maybe you will find time to make a video on how to make a guitar neck. After your videos, guitar body is fun.Only guitar neck problems remain.
A guitar neck has some very complex transitions (from the heel to the back of the neck and from the back of the neck to the headstock) that are tricky to model in Aspire. The easiest way is to get an STL file and import it. If you can't do that, it may be best to look into something like Blender or Fusion 360 to model the neck. Aspire can do it, but it's very fiddly work. Having said that, I do plan on doing some guitar videos in the future.
I haven't made a guitar since I got my CNC but I am sure I will be making another in the future and will definitely give this a go. Thanks for another really good video Mark I appreciate your time and effort in uploading thank you
Hi Mark, your a life saver! I'm fairly new to V Carve Pro and I have finally found a Vid that explains how to generate(create) and use a profile. I still don't know how to save a profile (as a .eps). A great video, thanks Mark. ;-)
Late to the party, but thanks so much for this. It unlocked a few doors for me. I've done a rough cut on a tele neck (with fretboard) and body. I did a 2 sided carve on the neck and only had to manually shape the heel. What I'm struggling with is doing a compound radius - 10" at the nut and 16 at the heel. Apparently it can be done with a double rail, but I haven't figured it out yet. Would you consider doing a vid on that?
awsome ty very much on this video, had little trouble at first but I got it, great teaching sir.. could u do one on how to put a 10 degree angle on the guitar head stock and the cam as well.. again thank you so much for this video helped me out a ton..
Hi Mark, I know this is an old video and comments, but had a question before I attempted this. Could you not first run the fret slots at full depth while it’s flat, which I think is 1/16” and then run your radius profile? I’ve never cut a fret slot before but have seen people who are creating the radius by hand using a sanding block, after the slots have been cut with a saw and they may have to just run the saw a little toward the end of the radius. Would the process I mentioned work? I mean cutting the slots first at full depth then running the radius? Thanks for the videos! I’ve learned more about VCarve Pro from your videos than anyone else!
It would absolutely work, with a caveat. Fret slots are usually cut with a .022 or .023 inch diameter end mill. As you can imagine, they're very delicate. So delicate, in fact, that you can't use a touch plate to set your Z axis. They also have a very short cutting depth. So, as long as your end mill is capable of cutting deep enough before you radius the fretboard, the order doesn't really matter. I cut fret slots by hand with a fret saw, so I don't bother with tiny end mills. It only takes a few minutes to do, and I like working with hand tools as well as running the CNC.
He said he wasn't able to project the cuts deep enough in Aspire. I have vcarve pro. Are you able to solve the depth íss, and get your bit to do the whole cut?
Great tutorial!!! I made a fretboard following this and it's absolutely amazing. Do you by any chance know how to make the neck to heel and neck to headstock transitions with concave path instead of convex? I can make a whole neck but transitions are convex instead of concave... which i don't like...
Thank you for checking it out! I haven't gotten the transitions for the headstock or heel down yet, and I've had to put it aside for a while. I'll try to get back to it as soon as I can.
Can you use the molding toolpath to put a radius on the top edge of something? say you were making a kind of dish with different pockets. Could you use this toolpath to round the top edges to avoid a hand router not being able to reach inside corners?
thanks I am a builder and started CNC and looking for solid information thanks for posting you can also find a fret spacing preogram at stewart macdonald for free and is easy to use
Thank you for this. I am new, still waiting on my machine, studying everything I can. Couldn't you use this technique to round out the back of a neck with from a flat board?
You could do some of it, but not the entire thing. That's the main reason I didn't do a neck tutorial. I figured the fretboard would get the Moulding Toolpath method across.
@@MarkLindsayCNC Thanks again. This will all be a lot easier once I get my machine and start actually working with it. I'm not looking for a CNC to build my guitars for me, just hoping I can have it do a bit of the time-consuming "grunt work" while I continue to work on other stuff by hand. I'm excited to get started.
I like your videos a lot. Keep it going, please. They are very informative and I have taken in much of what you are conveying and used it well. Thank you. One quick question to you, Mark. At the end, when you explained the reason for cutting the fret marks by hand, could you have turned/export the product you had as a 3d component and then brought it back in to Aspire and make the fret marks as 3D on the new image? Just asking.
Thank you, Jerry. In this particular video, I was trying to demonstrate the Moulding Toolpath in VCarve, then show why you couldn't project a 2D vector onto the resulting "model." If you have Aspire, it would be better to model the fretboard using a 2-Rail Sweep, then project the fret slots onto the 3D model for cutting. I'll do a video on creating a fretboard using the 2-Rail Sweep in the next couple of months.
Mark, I got a STL file for a LP neck of etsy. Im having a hard time setting the neck up on aspire. No matter how I do it, it seems like it will waste more wood than it needs and that the model thickness is to thick or when I do the tool pass nothing shows up. Can I send you the file and see if you could take a look at it and give me some advice?
Thank you for the video! it's very straight forward. I am having trouble figuring out how to do the bottom of the fretslots to match the fretboard radius along with inlay pockets. For the fretslots I am using "on profile tool path" then selecting "project toolpath onto 3d model. I keep coming up with a flat bottomed slot?
The Moulding Toolpath is not currently considered to be a 3D model by the software, even though it technically is a 3D model. As a result, there's no way to get the radiused fret slots you're trying to make by projecting the toolpath onto the 3D model, because according to the software, there's no 3D model to project it onto. Let me do a bit of trial and error testing, and I'll see if I can come up with some kind of a solution.
@@MarkLindsayCNC Thanks so Much Mark! I am pretty new to this stuff. I've been doing regular 2d stuff for a while but 3d stuff, this gets kind of confusing for me.
@@MarkLindsayCNC Hi Mark, Following up my question earlier I did figure out how to do it. I ended up doing the same thing as you did in the video but instead of the moulding tool I used the two rail sweep. I was able to use the "project on path" tool to achieve the curved bottom fret slot as well as matching the radius of the inlays. Thanks so much for your videos! I don't even think I would attempt to mess with this stuff without them!!
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but can this method of creating a drive rail be used for a circular or rectangle tray for basically round over the top edge and taper it down the side. BTW watched every video from 1 to 31 so far. Would not of been able to make the CNC jump without your instruction! 👍🙏
this tutorial came just at the right time im about to make a Ukulele fretboard with a 16 inch radius and was going to sand it all with my radius block i will now try your method. Did you get my email regarding Beki hello.
Thank you Alan! Yes, I got your email, and will reply this morning. I would keep those radius blocks handy - you will still need to sand the fretboard.
fantastic as usual ... thank you! quick question? if I’m attempting a fingerboard for an electric upright bass, the radius at the nut is one radius while the radius at the bridge is another ... how can I make a compound radius along the drive rail? thanks in advance!
I'm not aware of a way to do it in VCarve, but it can be done in Aspire. That's for another video down the road a bit though. Thanks for checking this one out!
@@MarkLindsayCNC I watched a tutorial from 2017 for Aspire using a 2 rail sweep to calculate arcs of different radii along the length of the fingerboard and back of the neck … complicated stuff but Vectric seems to make it a bit easier than Fusion 360 … I wrote to the folks at Vectric with the same question, I'll pass along their answer if you like, when I get it … failing to achieve a compound radius for the finger board, I guess I'll research a single radius and see what I find. upright basses are different animals than electric basses and have their own, unique concerns to deal with … thanks again for the great videos!
That 2-rail sweep method is the method I'd use in Aspire. Unfortunately, the 2-rail sweep isn't available to folks who use VCarve. This video was made to introduce the Moulding toolpath to folks who have never used it. If you have Aspire, I'd check out that tutorial by Vectric, as that's the method I'd use too. (And now that I know they've done a tutorial on it, I don't have to make one... :) )
@@MarkLindsayCNC yeah … Aspire is out of the budget for me BUT, the folks at Vectric did respond and said if I make a 2 rail sweep in another program, I could export the .stl file into V Carve Pro and work it out that way … so I'm thinking Fusion 360? I have a hobbyist license for that and I'll look into that work around … if I had other operations to perform, once I import the .stl file for the compound radius, could I edit it and perform other operations, do you think?
The problem is VCarve isn't a 3D modeling program. You can import an STL file into VCarve, but other than scaling it to size, you can't really edit it. For that, you'd need to use Aspire, or just use the CAD and CAM operations in Fusion 360. I don't use Fusion 360, so I can't help you at all with it.
Every time I try to radius my drive rail it shows the lines outside the drive rail. Even when I reverse it. By the way I’m doing a inverted radius for a sanding block. What’s wrong?
Glad to see you figured it out! With the Moulding toolpath, using a closed vector as a drive rail will force the lines to the outside of the vector. You have to use open vectors as drive rails to be able to change directions.
![Summer Walker - Heart Of A Woman [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SFddctbZzw8/mqdefault.jpg)
Oh, Mark. I watch so many CNC tutorials. You are the bomb. You and Garrett are my top picks.
In this particular video, you LITERALLY addressed questions the moment they came to mind as I watched. Some have said you take to long. I think your style is perfect. So thorough, which helps anyone new to this journey. Thank you so very much, sir.
I was trying to figure out how to mount a flat slab to a house with vinyl siding. 4 inch reveal, 7/16" step. Wanted the back of the sign to match the zig zag shape of the siding and sit flush. Thought about a fluting tool path. Long story short, you gave me a new path to machine this. Thanks!
Awesome explanation!!!! Thanks.
You are still the best. I could not figure moulding toolpath until this video. Thanks
I know this video is a few years old but is every bit as relevant to day as it was then. Like all your videos it is a masterclass in using Vcarve.
I've used Vcarve desktop for designing one guitar body but wanted to find ways of cutting a Stratocaster style body including the front and back 'comfort' contouring. Everybody I can find on YT or elsewhere seems to either use Aspire, which I can't justify buying, or imports a 3D model from somewhere else.
However, after watching your video and closely examining the drawings I have of the guitar body I've done a couple of basic tests with the moulding tool including using a curved rail for the back body cutout. I haven't cut any timber yet but the results look perfect in simulation and setting up the cuts was easy following your instructions.
Apologies if you've already covered this and I've missed it in my search through your videos but I'm sure it would be a popular lesson to cover the use of the most basic version of Vcarve to do all the cutting required for a Strat style body, including all the contouring without the need for imports from anywhere else. If anyone can do it, I'm sure you can.
Thank you very much. I will put it on the list.
Many thanks for this video--exactly what I was looking for. I got a clearer understanding of the Moulding Toolpath than from any other lesson I've seen.
Amazing tutorial!! Thank you so much for this information!
Thanks for sharing the video, learned a lot and did my first fretboard radius today!!
All of your videos are great! Thank you for all the great content. I would love to see your tips and tricks for doing inlays on the radius fret board...
Thank you Mark for your videos. Opened the world of working with software and cnc, maybe you will find time to make a video on how to make a guitar neck. After your videos, guitar body is fun.Only guitar neck problems remain.
A guitar neck has some very complex transitions (from the heel to the back of the neck and from the back of the neck to the headstock) that are tricky to model in Aspire. The easiest way is to get an STL file and import it. If you can't do that, it may be best to look into something like Blender or Fusion 360 to model the neck. Aspire can do it, but it's very fiddly work. Having said that, I do plan on doing some guitar videos in the future.
I haven't made a guitar since I got my CNC but I am sure I will be making another in the future and will definitely give this a go. Thanks for another really good video Mark I appreciate your time and effort in uploading thank you
Thank you, Cliff! I have fun making these videos, and I'm glad to hear you're finding them useful.
Wow, another fantastic lesson. Thanks Mark
Thank you very much, Wally! I hope it helps you out!
awsome video makes it easy
oh man anther great lesson Mark thanks so much
Thank you, sir! I hope it helps!
Hi Mark, your a life saver! I'm fairly new to V Carve Pro and I have finally found a Vid that explains how to generate(create) and use a profile. I still don't know how to save a profile (as a .eps). A great video, thanks Mark. ;-)
very well explained, you always give me new ideas to challenge myself! thank you Mark
Thank you, Richard! I hope it helps you out!
Another goodin' Mark. Well done!
Thank you, Dave! I do appreciate it!
Thanks Mark for another great video!
Thank you very much, Lyle!
Late to the party, but thanks so much for this. It unlocked a few doors for me. I've done a rough cut on a tele neck (with fretboard) and body. I did a 2 sided carve on the neck and only had to manually shape the heel. What I'm struggling with is doing a compound radius - 10" at the nut and 16 at the heel. Apparently it can be done with a double rail, but I haven't figured it out yet. Would you consider doing a vid on that?
I just threw you a few bones to say thanks for these video.
Thank you very much! I truly appreciate it!
awsome ty very much on this video, had little trouble at first but I got it, great teaching sir.. could u do one on how to put a 10 degree angle on the guitar head stock and the cam as well.. again thank you so much for this video helped me out a ton..
Excellent! So much great info
Thank you very much! I hope it helps!
do you have a video on Neck profiles? Love this video thanks so much Im sending thanks $$
No, I don't - I'm sorry. I haven't designed or built a guitar in 10 years, and unfortunately, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Hi Mark, I know this is an old video and comments, but had a question before I attempted this. Could you not first run the fret slots at full depth while it’s flat, which I think is 1/16” and then run your radius profile? I’ve never cut a fret slot before but have seen people who are creating the radius by hand using a sanding block, after the slots have been cut with a saw and they may have to just run the saw a little toward the end of the radius. Would the process I mentioned work? I mean cutting the slots first at full depth then running the radius? Thanks for the videos! I’ve learned more about VCarve Pro from your videos than anyone else!
It would absolutely work, with a caveat. Fret slots are usually cut with a .022 or .023 inch diameter end mill. As you can imagine, they're very delicate. So delicate, in fact, that you can't use a touch plate to set your Z axis. They also have a very short cutting depth. So, as long as your end mill is capable of cutting deep enough before you radius the fretboard, the order doesn't really matter. I cut fret slots by hand with a fret saw, so I don't bother with tiny end mills. It only takes a few minutes to do, and I like working with hand tools as well as running the CNC.
I cut the slots first with .023 bit, then model over the top of that. But I'd like to see how this could be done in Aspire, as I have that.
He said he wasn't able to project the cuts deep enough in Aspire. I have vcarve pro. Are you able to solve the depth íss, and get your bit to do the whole cut?
The issue is that the cutting depth of the .023 diam bit is not as deep as the fret tang.@@AuditoryStorytelling
Great tutorial!!! I made a fretboard following this and it's absolutely amazing. Do you by any chance know how to make the neck to heel and neck to headstock transitions with concave path instead of convex? I can make a whole neck but transitions are convex instead of concave... which i don't like...
Thank you for checking it out! I haven't gotten the transitions for the headstock or heel down yet, and I've had to put it aside for a while. I'll try to get back to it as soon as I can.
@@MarkLindsayCNC thank you for your reply! i'm looking forward for that tutorial!
Mark have you got a simple Video in putting and outside radius on an object with a bullnose cutter?
No, I'm afraid I don't, Tom. I prefer to use that kind of cutter on a router table. Sorry.
Can you use the molding toolpath to put a radius on the top edge of something? say you were making a kind of dish with different pockets. Could you use this toolpath to round the top edges to avoid a hand router not being able to reach inside corners?
You certainly can. The Moulding toolpath is perfect for that situation.
thanks I am a builder and started CNC and looking for solid information thanks for posting
you can also find a fret spacing preogram at stewart macdonald for free and is easy to use
hey Mark! once again you striking :D
why when I import an DXF file it doesnt open full scale? it opens very small..
Thanks a lot once again :)
Odds are, you downloaded it in Imperial, and you're using Metric. This'll fix it: ruclips.net/video/KE4kxHxE95g/видео.html
@@MarkLindsayCNC You are absolutely right, Sir :D
Thank you for this. I am new, still waiting on my machine, studying everything I can. Couldn't you use this technique to round out the back of a neck with from a flat board?
You could do some of it, but not the entire thing. That's the main reason I didn't do a neck tutorial. I figured the fretboard would get the Moulding Toolpath method across.
@@MarkLindsayCNC Thanks again. This will all be a lot easier once I get my machine and start actually working with it. I'm not looking for a CNC to build my guitars for me, just hoping I can have it do a bit of the time-consuming "grunt work" while I continue to work on other stuff by hand. I'm excited to get started.
I like your videos a lot. Keep it going, please. They are very informative and I have taken in much of what you are conveying and used it well. Thank you. One quick question to you, Mark. At the end, when you explained the reason for cutting the fret marks by hand, could you have turned/export the product you had as a 3d component and then brought it back in to Aspire and make the fret marks as 3D on the new image? Just asking.
Thank you, Jerry. In this particular video, I was trying to demonstrate the Moulding Toolpath in VCarve, then show why you couldn't project a 2D vector onto the resulting "model." If you have Aspire, it would be better to model the fretboard using a 2-Rail Sweep, then project the fret slots onto the 3D model for cutting. I'll do a video on creating a fretboard using the 2-Rail Sweep in the next couple of months.
Mark, I got a STL file for a LP neck of etsy. Im having a hard time setting the neck up on aspire. No matter how I do it, it seems like it will waste more wood than it needs and that the model thickness is to thick or when I do the tool pass nothing shows up. Can I send you the file and see if you could take a look at it and give me some advice?
Thank you for the video! it's very straight forward. I am having trouble figuring out how to do the bottom of the fretslots to match the fretboard radius along with inlay pockets. For the fretslots I am using "on profile tool path" then selecting "project toolpath onto 3d model. I keep coming up with a flat bottomed slot?
The Moulding Toolpath is not currently considered to be a 3D model by the software, even though it technically is a 3D model. As a result, there's no way to get the radiused fret slots you're trying to make by projecting the toolpath onto the 3D model, because according to the software, there's no 3D model to project it onto. Let me do a bit of trial and error testing, and I'll see if I can come up with some kind of a solution.
@@MarkLindsayCNC Thanks so Much Mark!
I am pretty new to this stuff. I've been doing regular 2d stuff for a while but 3d stuff, this gets kind of confusing for me.
@@MarkLindsayCNC Hi Mark, Following up my question earlier I did figure out how to do it. I ended up doing the same thing as you did in the video but instead of the moulding tool I used the two rail sweep. I was able to use the "project on path" tool to
achieve the curved bottom fret slot as well as matching the radius of the inlays. Thanks so much for your videos! I don't even think I would attempt to mess with this stuff without them!!
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but can this method of creating a drive rail be used for a circular or rectangle tray for basically round over the top edge and taper it down the side. BTW watched every video from 1 to 31 so far. Would not of been able to make the CNC jump without your instruction! 👍🙏
this tutorial came just at the right time im about to make a Ukulele fretboard with a 16 inch radius and was going to sand it all with my radius block i will now try your method. Did you get my email regarding Beki hello.
Thank you Alan! Yes, I got your email, and will reply this morning. I would keep those radius blocks handy - you will still need to sand the fretboard.
fantastic as usual ... thank you! quick question?
if I’m attempting a fingerboard for an electric upright bass, the radius at the nut is one radius while the radius at the bridge is another ...
how can I make a compound radius along the drive rail? thanks in advance!
I'm not aware of a way to do it in VCarve, but it can be done in Aspire. That's for another video down the road a bit though. Thanks for checking this one out!
@@MarkLindsayCNC I watched a tutorial from 2017 for Aspire using a 2 rail sweep to calculate arcs of different radii along the length of the fingerboard and back of the neck … complicated stuff but Vectric seems to make it a bit easier than Fusion 360 … I wrote to the folks at Vectric with the same question, I'll pass along their answer if you like, when I get it … failing to achieve a compound radius for the finger board, I guess I'll research a single radius and see what I find. upright basses are different animals than electric basses and have their own, unique concerns to deal with … thanks again for the great videos!
That 2-rail sweep method is the method I'd use in Aspire. Unfortunately, the 2-rail sweep isn't available to folks who use VCarve. This video was made to introduce the Moulding toolpath to folks who have never used it. If you have Aspire, I'd check out that tutorial by Vectric, as that's the method I'd use too. (And now that I know they've done a tutorial on it, I don't have to make one... :) )
@@MarkLindsayCNC yeah … Aspire is out of the budget for me BUT, the folks at Vectric did respond and said if I make a 2 rail sweep in another program, I could export the .stl file into V Carve Pro and work it out that way … so I'm thinking Fusion 360? I have a hobbyist license for that and I'll look into that work around … if I had other operations to perform, once I import the .stl file for the compound radius, could I edit it and perform other operations, do you think?
The problem is VCarve isn't a 3D modeling program. You can import an STL file into VCarve, but other than scaling it to size, you can't really edit it. For that, you'd need to use Aspire, or just use the CAD and CAM operations in Fusion 360. I don't use Fusion 360, so I can't help you at all with it.
hello sir could you do a video on how to make a 12" raduis block in (mm).
'"
trying to cut molding profile but am getting extra radius that is not part of profile.
Make sure you only have the radius you want to extrude selected. Sometimes they can hide behind one another.
Every time I try to radius my drive rail it shows the lines outside the drive rail. Even when I reverse it. By the way I’m doing a inverted radius for a sanding block. What’s wrong?
I see! I didn’t use just a line for my drive rail. How did you learn this software so thoroughly?!
I’m so excited. Lol. This stupid sanding radius block is the first 3D thing I’ve ever done. Next I’m doing a fret board.
Glad to see you figured it out! With the Moulding toolpath, using a closed vector as a drive rail will force the lines to the outside of the vector. You have to use open vectors as drive rails to be able to change directions.
I learned the software by making mistakes, then trying to figure out what I did wrong. Keep at it!