Brand new to the Shopbot concept, with questions.

[shovelhead]

I just recently discovered Shopbots, and am curious as to whether it would be a good solution for my situation.

I'm building guitar amp speaker cabinets out of 3/4 and 1/2" baltic birch. I use box joints on all the corners, and dado in the front panel. In addition, I build amp head cabinets, and need to make cutouts for controls, etc.

My question about the cabs is: can I make clean, square box joints? The rest seems like a perfect fit for the Shopbot.

In addition, I plan to build guitars. I've seen the demo clip where a guitar body is being cut out. I'm curious as to whether a 48" by 48" shopbot would be capable of carving a domed maple top, rather than being a 'plank' style electric guitar. Also, can the Shopbot cut an angled back headstock?

I know the cab portion of my needs would get me up and running much quicker than the guitar portion, but my real love is guitars. I noticed others doing guitars here, and hope to learn from your experience!

Thanks in advance.

[ron brown]

Don,

I find folks imagination is more limited than the machines. Special holding jigs will be needed for boxjoints. You might need to make two passes or be very carful on entrance and exit on the box joints to get a clean cut. But, I ahve cut dovetails in soft, easy to splinter wood with the ShopBot.

Domed acustic guitar and violin tops can be carved on the ShopBot. Once the jigs were figured out, angled or dovetail sockets and mating joints would be quick and accurate.

I've never done a finger-board on a ShopBot but I think it would be fairly easy. Even a conical finger-board could be engineered if one cared to take the time.

Ron

[mrdovey]

Don...

Ron's right. For a look at a vertical jig visit http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/cnc_joinery.html - and for a look at the very first joint cut with it, visit http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/jigs.html and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Morris

[shovelhead]

Excellent info - thank you!

I'm thinking that I could come up with a jig that would hold 10 or more sides in a clamp fixture, and cut all 10 at once.

Thank you again,

Don

[sheldon@dingwallguitars.com]

Don, The Shopbot is capable of carving tops. The limiting factor will be software, CAD/CAM skills and tooling. If you have the CAD/CAM skills the rest can be bought. If you don't, the learning curve will be steep for the first couple of years without a lot of finished product to show for it.

[shovelhead]

By the way, Sheldon, I checked out your work both on your website and in the Guitar Player Buyer's Guide. Very, very impressive!