Importing designs - guitars, drums, flutes

[BlueRocco]

Lg -
I've seen your web site and it looks like you are importing your designs right into Designer. How do you get your 3d stuff to come in a a scale you can use? Do you rescale it after you bring it in? Are you using raster or vector 3d files? My point of reference is AutoCAD. I haven't had a lot of experience in raster software, so I'm a complete newbie at doing this kind of stuff. I see your images and all I can do is wonder..... :o I really want to cut some tongue drums, flutes guitars ...... I have everything drawn up in AutoCAD but that is as far as I've done it with the CNC stuff. I have made these things by hand, so I know what I want them to look like and I can see possibilities as to doing some by hand and some by Carvewright, but after seeing what you have done..... Wow! Could you point me at a direction, link, or whatever that I can use?

Micheal

[BlueRocco]

Lg -
I've seen your web site and it looks like you are importing your designs right into Designer. How do you get your 3d stuff to come in a a scale you can use? Do you rescale it after you bring it in? Are you using raster or vector 3d files? My point of reference is AutoCAD. I haven't had a lot of experience in raster software, so I'm a complete newbie at doing this kind of stuff. I see your images and all I can do is wonder..... :o I really want to cut some tongue drums, flutes guitars ...... I have everything drawn up in AutoCAD but that is as far as I've done it with the CNC stuff. I have made these things by hand, so I know what I want them to look like and I can see possibilities as to doing some by hand and some by Carvewright, but after seeing what you have done..... Wow! Could you point me at a direction, link, or whatever that I can use?
Micheal


Anyone got any ideas?

[brdad]

I am musically inclined just enough to be able to turn on a radio, but I had to look up to see what a tongue drum was. Amazing what you can learn on YouTube!

Anyway, I see a Carvewright tongue drum project in my future, even if I won't be able to play actual music on it.

I'll have to google it later, but do you know of any sites that explain how to get the right sizes for the tongues for the notes? Or are there weights attached to the tongues to tune them? Thickness and type of wood required?

[Kenm810]

Tongue Drums: A perfect project for the CW and CC Machines,
Years ago I built one for each of my kids using a scroll saw.
They were great entertainment for all of us.
After reading the last few posts, I plan to make one for each of our grand kids.
You can really use your imeganation in designing and carving them,
even if your not musically inclined, their really great fun to play. http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif

htmp://tonguedrum.com/media/6KeyinFminzaw.mp3 (http://htmp://tonguedrum.com/media/6KeyinFminzaw.mp3)

http://www.tonguedrum.com/performers.htm

[mtylerfl]

That looks like a good one for the new 1/16" Cutting Bit to accomplish those thin-line clearances! (assuming the top piece is 1/4" in thickness)

[forqnc]

Thanks for the links Ken, at first I thought,
Tongue Drum + Wood + Tongue + splinters = Painful

But now I am enlightened, I look forward to seeing another great project from the CC/CW

Good Luck guys

[Kenm810]

The 1/8" Cutting Bits or even the 1/16" Carving Bits will work fine on 3/4" stock,
the spacing between the tongues can be as large or small as you want or need.
Some have 1/4" or more to suite the design and can be carved from the back side if needed.

[mtylerfl]

Thanks for the additional info, Ken. I gathered from the first photo example that the clearances needed to be about the width of a bandsaw/scrollsaw width. Nice to know it doesn't matter. I can picture numerous very interesting and attractive designs for a project like that! It will be fun to see what folks come up with!

[BlueRocco]

I am musically inclined just enough to be able to turn on a radio, but I had to look up to see what a tongue drum was. Amazing what you can learn on YouTube!

Anyway, I see a Carvewright tongue drum project in my future, even if I won't be able to play actual music on it.

I'll have to google it later, but do you know of any sites that explain how to get the right sizes for the tongues for the notes? Or are there weights attached to the tongues to tune them? Thickness and type of wood required?

I have the general lengths for the tongues drawn out in AutoCAD. I print the designs actual size with my plotter that is accurate to .001" then glue them to the wood and cut it out with my scroll saw. The problem with the scroll saw is you have to cut both sides of the lines between the tongues to get enough clearance for the tongues to vibrate freely. Thats why I wanted to use the carvewright. 1/8" wouldn't be too much, but most of mine have been 3/32". You tune the tongues by removing wood from the bottom surface of the tongues at the intersecting points of the vibration sine wave, or the ends and close to the center of each tongue. You can use a guitar tuner, or a piano to tune them. I have found that tongues of about 3/4" work best and they need to be 1"-1 1/2" wide for the hammers to be able to strike them accurately. Most any type of wood works, but you have to think, a lot of figure isn't going to vibrate as well as a straight grain. I think my best sounding ones were quarter sawn mahogany or ash. Also the tongues need a strong base to vibrate from. I have done drums with a single sidewall thickness and found that when you strike the tongues they all vibrate, so now I do all my drums with double wall at the end where the tongues attach. Now that said, I still need to find out how to bring the tongue lengths in to designer without loosing the accuracy of my AutoCAD designs......... any takers? So far I am recreating them by setting the snap points at the lowest common denominator for all tongue lengths and counting intersections ... I'm about cross eyed. Is there a ruler or some other reference that I'm missing?

[brdad]

This is one I whipped up. I used the plans from here (http://www.deltaportercable.com/Library/WoodworkingPlans.aspx?BlockID=eb95059a-3a9d-44e1-948a-1a687c406e39), which don't give exact dimensions so I scaled it best I could. All cuts are done with an 1/8 straight bit on vectors. You might be able to do it with the new CW 1/16 bit if you made sure not to cut too deep at once.

The only issue with doing the project would be the triangular shaped waste pieces getting caught in and breaking the bit.

I'm still pondering other options to better control exact length - one way is to make each tongue a separate vector. Thanks for the info, this can be a fun project.

I'd have to use a guitar tuner, I can't tell the difference between a B flat and a K sharp!

[ChrisAlb]

Now that said, I still need to find out how to bring the tongue lengths in to designer without loosing the accuracy of my AutoCAD designs......... any takers?

I don't know much about these but, Can't you just draw them right in Designer? Between using the snap and attachments, you can get to within a .000 accuracy. Isn't that close enough to be able to tune them the way you suggested by removing wood with sanding?

If you could send me one of your Acad files, (I use Auto Cad 2002) or even the the precise dimensions, I'll bet I can get pretty darn close in Designer.

[brdad]

Here is another method, easier to define the exact length... I used the connected line tools to draw 3 sides of a rectangle, then used the change form tool to make the end a arc.

I think the closest you will get is 1/128", but that should be a tunable length?

[BlueRocco]

I don't know much about these but, Can't you just draw them right in Designer? Between using the snap and attachments, you can get to within a .000 accuracy. Isn't that close enough to be able to tune them the way you suggested by removing wood with sanding?

If you could send me one of your Acad files, (I use Auto Cad 2002) or even the the precise dimensions, I'll bet I can get pretty darn close in Designer.

Yes, I can draw them in Designer. That is what I meant by setting the snap points to the lowest common denominator between all the tongue lengths and counting snap points.:) Just going a little cross eyed counting all the points. I was hoping I'm missing something like a ruler or an easy way to do an accurate import. Vector to vector, instead of vector to raster to raster, if you catch my drift. I already have one that I drew in Designer when I first got my Carvewright. Now that I have been reading the posts, I can do it a LOT faster, just looking for a few more easy methods that's all. :p

Micheal

[bjbethke]

Yes, I can draw them in Designer. That is what I meant by setting the snap points to the lowest common denominator between all the tongue lengths and counting snap points.:) Just going a little cross eyed counting all the points. I was hoping I'm missing something like a ruler or an easy way to do an accurate import. Vector to vector, instead of vector to raster to raster, if you catch my drift. I already have one that I drew in Designer when I first got my Carvewright. Now that I have been reading the posts, I can do it a LOT faster, just looking for a few more easy methods that's all. :p

Micheal
You could make a PTN from your AutoCAD designs with Corel or Illustrator and load it in the CW Designer, use outline function and cut path. I found this pattern on the WEB and changed the drawings to PTN's. And used the cut path to do the cutout.

[BlueRocco]

Here is another method, easier to define the exact length... I used the connected line tools to draw 3 sides of a rectangle, then used the change form tool to make the end a arc.

I think the closest you will get is 1/128", but that should be a tunable length?

That is exactly how I do it. Here is an octave. Still needs tuning, but the proportions are accurate as far as I can tell.

[BlueRocco]

You could make a PTN from your AutoCAD designs with Corel or Illustrator and load it in the CW Designer, use outline function and cut path. I found this pattern on the WEB and changed the drawings to PTN's. And used the cut path to do the cutout.

Cool -I think I'm going to try this method. Thanks a lot! I have to admit, I'm a bit spoiled with AutoCad, I've been using it since John Walker released it back in the 80's. A trillion to one scale reference is a kind of nice ....... so
I've been using a line drawn to measure/scale designs. does any one know a better way?