Steel Guitar Builder

Got a question if I had a milling machine and wanted to mill some necks for a pedal steel and just say the table doesent travel far enough to do the complete length of the necks is there a way around this or would I just need a bigger machine.

Hi Shobud,

I did some of my 'project steel' on a small model-makers mill with just over 4" travel, you just have to clamp your material to a fixed registration datum, mill as far as possible, move your material along your registration datum, re-clamp and continue ad infinitum.

It is slow but quite possible and anyway, it's a hobby and if you were in a hurry you would buy ready made. Go for it, it's amazing how ingenious you will become and it's half the fun.

Regards
Ron Mc

I had sorta wondered if u couldnt move your piece and continue on when u ran out of table travel but I havent had I guess you would say a lot of really formal training in machining so I still dont know a lot of things.

Yes you can get by like that sometimes you can try repositioning your work, just keep in mind the depth that you have cut and you ll probly have to realign your work (repositioning ), just take your time and you should be ok,it all depends on how much your table travel is and how big your work piece is. Russ

The biggest piece would be steel guitar necks but I see what you are saying I would have to realign everything.I found some nice mills for really good prices with a 15 inch table travel which is not bad so I would run out of room with the necks but I think I could manage.

When you come to repositioning your cutter for the same depth, wet a small piece of cigarette paper, place it on the surface you have already milled and slowly lower your cutter while it is spinning, down on to the cigarette paper, as soon as the cutter touches the piece of paper it will flick the paper off.

You will now be only the thickness of the paper above your previous cut, the small difference would be un-noticable on something like a neck especially after you had sanded the machining marks off.

Hope this helps.

Ron Mc

Thats a good idea I havent thought about doing something like that.After sanding you probalbly wouldnt be able to tell so that is for sure something I will remember.

If you get a Bridgeport type miller, you can swivel the head to one side, mill as far as you can, then swivel the head the other way and carry on milling, without having to unclamp the workpiece.

Burt thanks for that information On the Bridgeport I will keep that in mind.

But boy is it hard to going from long table travel to short. I am having some issues with the lead screw on my TOS mill, enabling the table to move only 16". I am used to milling out a 32" pedal bar in one setting.