curtisa

It won't be terribly strong at that point if you do glue it that way. It'd need to have enough strength to take the weight of the guitar held by a strap on the upper horn. A scarf joint where the two pieces meet would probably do it, but you'd need to have enough excess to play with in the piece you're trying to extend it by. How abut taking the 1.5" full length offcut you're creating, dividing it into two or three equally long 1.5" pieces, laminating them together to make a longer/wider extension piece, and then using that to create the extra long piece to scarf into the endgrain for your upper horn?

Had you lived a bit closer to me I'd send you my old axis drivers that I swapped out of my machine a couple of months ago, as they're just paperweights to me now...

With reference to the datasheet you linked to: The combination of these two switches sets the driver to be compatible with the style of stepper motor you have connected. M1 and M2 should both be set to off conditions to select 2-phase motor control, which is what you have on your machine (see page 9 of the datasheet). That's assuming that DIP switches S1 and S2 being in the OFF position (up) = M1 and M2 being off. The combination of these switches sets how quickly the current in each stepper motor coil starts to decay when the steps stop being sent to the driver. Switches S3 and S4 in your case are set to ON, which makes the decay mode 100%, (start to decay immediately when the driver becomes idle, page 9 in the datasheet and also graphs on page 16) The combination of these two switches sets the amount of torque (current) drive applied to each motor. The datasheet is a bit vague about this setting, but it looks like the motor driver current is set by an external resistor to a fixed maximum value, and then you can divide this maximum current drive down by a factor of 100%, 75%, 50% and 20% by setting these switches according to the table on page 10 of the datasheet. For your drivers that have S5 = ON and S6 = OFF that would equate to an operating torque of 75% of the set max. For your drivers set to S5 and S6 bot = OFF they're running in 100% torque mode. Higher torque (current) will result in a 'stronger' motor at the expense of more heat being generated in that motor. I can't find anything in the datasheet that relates to this on first glance, but you have it set ON for all your drives, and I assume ON = motor current reduction active?

Same difference, I knew what you meant and you knew what you meant

I had forgotten you'd stumped up for the extra axis on your machine. Certainly worth a shot if it's easy to reconfigure A axis driver as X.

What about if write up a quick small program that just moves the X axis in small increments, with a pause between each move? Psuedo code would read something like: When the program ends measure the distance travelled and see if the total amount of movement adds up to 1 inch.

You plane the wood if it needs it. Just because it's been supplied cut doesn't mean it's flat. If you rest the wood against a known flat surface, does it appear to have any gaps underneath it? Can you rock it by pressing diagonally-opposite corners or from one end to the other? Do the surface(s) you require to be flat have a rough unfinished texture? If the answer to any of the above three questions is 'yes', then you probably need to plane it. The action of planing is to ensure the surface of the timber is on the same plane, ie that it is completely level, flat and smooth. Timber bought from a supplier may be cut with the intention of being flat and planed, but other things may influence how that timber reacts to the environment once it has been cut free from the original slab. It may develop some degree of warping, cupping or other deformation that results in the timber no longer being perfectly flat, in which case you plane it to restore the required surfaces to being as flat and smooth as you need it to be for your application.

So it's slow rates of stepping on X axis while Y axis is simultaneously doing fast rates of stepping, but only when X is traveling in the negative direction west beyond X=0? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Based on your observations and my interpretation, when you run the code you've just attached you're seeing: the cutter zip west in a straight line gradually head north at a slight easterly angle turn around and head due south turn around and head due north <- incorrect motion at this point? cutter zips back across to the origin and now X is too far east? Step 4 of the above should be heading north at a slight westerly angle, but instead it only goes due north? And during step 4 are you seeing Mach3 update the X axis readout while it's making the move? The slower the movement of the axis the fewer pulses per second are being sent to it. The voltage/current waveforms being applied to the stepper motors should the same magnitude, but the rate at which they change will be different. They shouldn't be any more or less susceptible to interference whether you're stepping at 1IPM or 100IPM. Noise *could* be an issue perhaps, but it's got a funny way of influencing how the machine is being affected. I'm more concerned that perhaps you've got a buggy copy of Mach3.

Another couple of tests to try. Run the 'Diagonal test 0_5 inch' file 4 or 5 times and verify the cutter always ends at X0, Y0. Repeat the same process with the 'Diagonal test 0_04 inch' file and check again. Diagonal test 0_04 inch.rtf Diagonal test 0_5 inch.rtf

It is physically returning to the same spot though, not just what Mach3 is reporting?

What about if you take that same code and change the line that reads: To: And run again?

One more code to try. This just does a handful of moves around a square pattern 2" x 2". At the end of each group of moves it should return to X0, Y0 and pause for 5 seconds for you to check if any drift is occuring. I've annotated the lines of code for you to check as they run. Square and 45deg.rtf

But what I am suggesting is that you compare the measurements of two necks, one good and one bad, and see if there are any clues in the measured shape along the length of the bad one. If they are different, then explore how are they different. No idea. String clearance at fretted position +1 isn't something you see discussed too often, but that's another thing you can check by comparing.

Fret crowns too flat? Could you be building necks too stiff, making them difficult to control how and where the relief occurs along their length? What about taking some measurements of a known good guitar and comparing it against one of your problem ones: Use feeler gauges to measure the gap between the underside of the string and the fret in front of a known buzzy fret (eg, if the 3rd position is buzzy when fretted, measure the clearance between the string and 4th fret with the 3rd fretted) Compare relief and action given the same setup at all frets. Tabulate the results and compare the two.

Straight in the deep end with the hand plane. Easiest tool in the world to use, one of the hardest to tune and keep sharp. They're rewarding to use when they're set up right, though. There's a certain zen about adjusting a handplane to take off the thinnest of shavings.

Any chance you're letting the neck flex while you're leveling and giving you a 'false level' on the crowns?

What kind of planer did you get?

Happy to offer what assistance I can, although I am sorry that this is giving you grief despite all sensibility.

Well that could be something to explore, as your pickup cavity Gcode doesn't do any moves where X and Y are driven at the same time. The way the pickup cavity is clearing the material is in a zig-zag pattern, whereas the neck cavity has those little 45 degree traverse moves in between each spiral move. Seems odd that you were able to do a more complex shape like the body outline without issues though; that should be full of simultaneous X&Y moves. Gecko G540 is parallel port only. Isn't your machine USB?

When the machine is running the neck pocket Gcode can you physically see it making the short little 45 degree moves in between each clearing spiral?: Try running the attached and see if it works. It just traces the extreme outline of the neck pocket once. Test Neck Pocket_outline only_origin BC.rtf

I think what @mattharris75 is raising is that the OP is asking general questions about guitar building in the forum where work in progress and build threads are discussed. @PRSpoggers - I think your query will be better served if it's posted in a section of the forum where it will get the most attention. Queries like 'what tool do I need to achieve X' and 'which truss rod would you recommend' are better suited to the Tools and Shop Chat area or the Design Bar area respectively. The In Progress and Finished Work areas is primarily intended for documenting your build and sharing your construction journey with everyone. Once you've started a build thread where you're logging your work-in-progress diary I see no issues with asking for advice within that thread, but standalone questions are better located in the forums for which they were intended. I'll move these couple of threads for you

Is the X axis mechanically stiff at that position on the table? Does it feel like the axis is binding if you try turning the motor shaft by hand with the power off? With the power on and the cutter near where the problem occurs, can you jog the machine east/west in Mach3 with no trouble? Does the plot/preview in Mach3 look like the expected shape of the neck pocket, or is it squished up/lopped off on the west side? When you run the neck pocket routine and it fails to travel west past the centreline, does the X axis pause at the centreline as if the remainder of the missing move is still being 'played' in the background or does it transition immediately into the next north/south move with no delay? When the west motion is limited is it at the exact same X value every time, or is there some variation in the point at which it stops? Try running the attached and see what it does (with the Z axis unplugged). Rename file extension as before. It's the same neck pocket routine, but with the origin set to the bottom centre of the neck pocket rather than the middle of the guitar body. Assuming you don't change your work origin it should trace out the neck pocket somewhere near the middle of the body. Test Neck Pocket_origin BC.rtf

Nice work! I was fully expecting that to be a lost cause. Thanks for proving me wrong

You asked for help regarding this issue a while back: Were any of the ideas discussed in that thread helpful at the time? Note that some of the discussion in that thread will appear a bit disjointed as a number of posts have been deleted. I would say that the video you've posted, above, makes it a bit difficult to tell exactly what the buzz is. Could just be my interpretation, but you do seem to be playing with a strong picking hand, like you are really digging into the strings. If I play any of my guitars as strongly as it appears you are none of them are buzz free. It's also a bit tricky to tell how bad the buzz is based on only plucking staccato notes. A few sustained single picks may reveal more. Is it possible that you're over-leveling the frets at the nut-end of the neck? If you were to level the frets such that the crowns gradually got higher towards the bridge you'd probably never pick it up using the 'traditional' methods - a fret rocker wouldn't show you anything as no fret would be higher than the one adjacent to it, a straightedge laid on the fret tops wouldn't show anything unusual as all you're doing is proving the fret crowns are the same height relative to themselves, leveling the frets wouldn't change anything as they'd be level with respect to themselves but not to the fretboard surface. But if each fret crown was progressively higher than the previous one you might see something like buzzing at all positions except the 24th, even with reasonable amounts of neck relief and action. The only clue you might see is that the action above the fret crowns may increase from the nut to about the middle of the neck as you'd normally expect, but then stay constant for the remainder of the length of the neck instead of gradually creeping higher.

Unplug the Z axis motor when it's idle at a known position? Plug it back in again when you have Mach3 idle at the same location again.