Wooden Rose Engraved Guitar

I had an assignment in my engineering class to make something that was CNC routed. To get ideas for what to do, I searched google. I found a lot of cool things, but I fell in love with the idea of doing something guitar related. I saw something where someone engraved different colorful patterns in a guitar and that one became my favorite. So I chose that idea, but put my own spin on it. This is the perfect thing for all the guitar lovers out there and is a cool decoration to have in the house.

• A piece of poplar wood with dimensions of 30 X 10 X 0.76
• VCarve Pro
• CNC machine (I used a Laguna IQ)
• Laser cutting software (I used Lightburn)
• Laser cutter
• Sandpaper
• A router
• Acrylic paints
• Plexiglass
• Ultimate Polyurethane Oil Based Clear Satin Spray

Choose a piece of poplar wood that is 30 x 10 X 0.75. If the piece of wood is bigger than this, cut it to the right dimensions.

Now it's time to open Vcarve and set some things up. Make your job size 30 X 10 X 0.75 and make your origin the center.

Go to this link and download it to your files. I found this by looking up "Pinterest electric guitar images drawing". After that import it as a bitmap and trace it. Size the guitar so its filling most of your workspace. Next, select the entire guitar and press the ungroup button. Delete the entire inside leaving just the outline of the guitar

The file with arrangement of roses, leaves, and name and its tool paths are in Step 7

In order to get the roses, I googled images of simple roses. I chose these ones: Rose 1, Rose 2, and Rose 3.. Save all of those roses to your files as well. Import them as a bitmaps and trace them.

For Rose 1, I didn't include the leaves in the tracing

For Rose 3, ungroup the image and separate the leaves from the roses. Regroup the roses so that you can move the whole thing together, but make sure that individual leaves are separated.

Organize the roses and leaves on the guitar as you please. If I could've done this again, I would've paid special attention to overlaps. Make sure there aren't any overlaps between the bitmaps and that they don't go over the edges of the guitar outline.

It's time to add your name. Tap the text button and type your name into the text box. Choose a font that will cut out well. I chose Goudy Stout. Rotate the text 90 degrees to the left and scale it so it fits the neck the guitar.

Take a screen shot of the head of the guitar. Import it as a bitmap and trace the image. Only choose the first two shades of black when you are tracing so that it doesn't trace the entire guitar head. It saves you work when you are ungrouping the image. Select the entire image and ungroup it.. Delete the outside leaving the inside of the guitar head. Move and scale it so its centered in the head of the guitar.

Roses, Leaves, and Names

For these tool paths, choose a 90 degree 0.5 inch v-bit. Make sure that the start depth is 0 in. Label your toolpaths in order to stay organized.

Guitar Head

For this toolpath, there needs to be a pocket. Tap the pocket option and select the guitar head outline you made in the last step. Choose a 0.25 inch end mill for the tool. Make the cut depth, 0.11 inches and a pass depth of 0.125.

Outline of Guitar

It is very important that this tool path is the very last. If the outline is cut out before anything else, it can cause things to slide and can mess up the toolpaths. Tap the profile tool path option and select the outline of the guitar. Choose the 0.25 inch end mill for this toolpath as well. Make a pass depth of 0.125 For the cut depth, make it 0.02 more that the actual depth to make sure it goes through the material.

After you've made all the toolpaths, simulate it to make sure you did everything correctly.

First, find your center origin. In order to do this make 2 diagonal lines. One goes from the top right corner to the bottom left corner. The other goes from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Where these lines intersect is your center. Mark it so that you know where your bit should start. Secure the wood to the CNC machine with screws. I made two inches of space on each side in order to screw. This is extra space and won't interfere with the design at all. Cut out your design on the CNC machine.

Use the router to refine the edges of the guitar. The rounded edges add a nice touch to the design. Sand the sides down so they are smooth.

Export just the guitar head as an AI file and import it into your laser-cutting software (I used Lightburn). Once you get the guitar head into the software, create a design using circles and lines to look like a real guitar head. Dimension it to make sure it is the same size as the pocket. Once its all done, cut it out. In order to fit it in the pocket, you might need to do a small amount of sanding.

Now it's time to paint! For this, be sure to use paint brushes with very fine tips as you will need to paint in small spaces and crevices. I gave mine a bright theme by painting the roses pink, salmon, yellow, and a reddish-pink. Have fun with this and put your own creative spin on it. Use acrylic paints to do this and take your time. Once the paint has dried, spray a protective polyurethane coat on the guitar. Then you're done!