Does the CNC move the bit or the piece when it's carving?
The table is fixed (ie the guitar) and the head of the router moves. You can also see the sawblade (though the fret saw was not in it) and just offer camera is the drill heads.
What kind of router is in your table?
Craftsman honestly. They generally hold up for about 2-3 years before they shit themselves. Just about time for a couple replacements.
Yep. Regular Titebond 1.
Just the one shop assistant?
For this portion of filming yes. I have 2 employee's now both are part'ish time (4-5 days a week but about 6 hours a day). My new guy has taken over 95% of the assembly work.
How much do you pay the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man to do your spraying?
(sorry, could not resist that one)
Not enough!
Why are you aggressively removing the finish on the brown cedar body?
That's actually just leveling the sealer coat (or maybe one of the rounds of clear). It'd get sprayed again, leveled then buffed. The average guitar spends 2-3 weeks in the booth. Spray isolante, next day grain fill, wait 24 hours, remove excess filler sand guitar with 320, spray high build sealer, wait 48 (24 in the summer), level with 320, spray high build again, wait 48, level with 400.
Then prime it if solid color, or mix up tints to spray bursts. If the guitar is one color this can all be done in a day. If it's two colors (like a Starliner with a burst top / brown back) you mask off one half, spray the burst. Wait till the next day, scrape binding, mask the top, spray the back. Peel the tape fix and bleed thru and then go to clear.
Spray 2 sessions of clear a day. First day spray, wait 24, scuff with scotchbrite pad, spray again, wait 48 hours, level with 800, spray final round of clear.
Wait 10-14 days, level with 1000, 1500, 2000 then buff.
So if I quote you 3 months to build a guitar, 1 solid month of that is just finishing.
Great video. I was actually surprised (and never realized) that the Banshee body core is one piece and that the "wings" are a pair of tops glued onto the front side wings of the guitar. Interesting.
Yep sort of. It's actually 5 pieces: The neck is 2 pieces + the headstock (3) and the wings are separate but glued on to the neck section at the same thickness as the neck, we then mill them down to form the step. I do this mostly because my CNC uses vacuum pods to hold the bodies on the machine and with out a flat back surface to "suck against" I wouldn't be able to put them on there. To do the back side we have a jig that the body physically fits into and it mills the back side of the wings down, does the rear cavity ect.
I saw that on FB and just got done watching. It is a good thing I don't build guitars for a living. After watching all the work you do on them, if I were to build them, they would cost 1 million dollars. That is how much it would take for me to do all that work.
Sometimes I think the same thing
Thanks guys! I'm glad you are all enjoying it!