Thank you. It's been a journey.Originally Posted by andybanks
Your list of takeaways is pretty much on point. You really want to know how to nail the slicer (I don't really) and know how to nail your printer down to it's absolute maximum potential or it's just plain hard work. You'd get a lot better finish that would need a lot less effort to tidy up. It'd make the whole thing a lot less daunting and probably more enjoyable.
Timber through the centre is probably not a bad idea. If one was planning to run a trem, it'd be a pretty worthy idea. As it is I added my own support through the back of the cavity from under the bridge to the edge of the section the neck goes to.
Balance-wise, the fact that the centre is solid plastic helps give it some weight.
My shimming was more to do with a crap cheapo neck that had a narrow heel. I've only really shimmed it where it needs to be. I did note though that the screw holes did produce a lot of solid build up at the entry to the holes which was also playing havoc with the neck seating. Getting rid of that helped.
The joins are reasonable except the lower section with the electronics cavity going to the centre. All of the other joins had about as much surface area as you could get. Using a decent 2 part plastic epoxy looks to be key in making these solid. That said, they're hard to marry up perfectly, and some of that is to do with how the slicer will handle extra layers on the outside and how you've oriented the piece.
It's also worth being really mindful too of where you'll need supports. They can be terribly difficult to get out depending on how your slicer behaves. You can't underestimate how much work this adds stripping out heaps of supports. It also burns a lot of filament and the time adds up when you're printing something that can take over a week.
Overall you need to be committed to print something like this - whether you're keen on just printing it to say you've done it (like me), or you're aiming to make something super duper top shelf, it still takes a lot of commitment. No matter how you slice it, it's a long, slow process. Bad things can happen and the print fails - this happened to me on my first section about 1/3rd of the way in - my Octopi server lost the plot. Little things that cost you time, filament and power.
My only other suggestion would be to consider instead of a complex body like this, go for a "solid" body design - one that has outer sections that have a low infill so they're light but solid enough, and a high infill centre to support the bridge and neck. You'll end up with a far more "normal" looking guitar with a lot less surface area to prep and far greater surface for gluing. And if you're gonna do it to a bass, consider fitting metal rods through the centre to add support from the neck to the bridge as filament like PLA isn't quite strong enough.
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