Too good to be true? Laser-cut MDF template from sendcutsend.com

[Sea Devil]

I'm doing an oddball custom build and need to make a custom pickguard. I have my material and I have a Bosch Colt router, but no reliable access to a band saw, table router, scroll saw, or spindle sander, so I've been looking at ways to translate my very dialed-in digital drawing into a template. I uploaded my drawing to sendcutsend.com and got an instant quote: 29 bucks with free shipping for a .472" MDF template, and it will ship three days from now. (Clear acrylic is only available up to .214" thick, unfortunately.) Sounds great to me. Have any members here used these guys? It's hard to imagine how things could go wrong, but I thought I'd ask.

 

[Sea Devil]

I have submitted the drawing to local NYC fabricators Canal Plastics for a quote as well. They cut a gorgeous plexi pickguard for me years ago, and I'd happily pay a bit more to get an acrylic template from them.

 

[erix]

I use sendcutsend in my day-to-day job and have found them to be very good. All my stuff has been laser cut and formed sheet metal parts but I have no doubts their MDF is just as nice.

Their file submission and quotes process is entirely automated so make sure your CAD files are exactly what you want cuz that's what you'll get!

 

[Sea Devil]

Good to hear! I would rather have the acrylic template, but I suspect it will be at least $80, which isn't worth it for a one-off.

That said, I love the fact that Canal Plastics is still an ongoing concern and am keen on supporting them. They are one of the last remaining vestiges of the old NYC that I so cherished, but which is largely dead and gone these days.

EDIT: Canal Plastics needs to cut from both sides to do a 1/2" thick template, and advises that "it is not too nice edge" (they are Chinese, thus the odd phrasing). They can only do a perfect edge on 1/4" thick material. Looks as though the MDF template is the way to go.

 

[RogerC]

I’ve never used them, but they have a great reputation among the custom car build/rebuild scene. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them at all.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Sounds darn reasonable to me. Back when I was gainfully employed I was an engineer for a fab shop that had a lot of cnc machines. One of the biggest was a laser cutter that we used for cutting steel - both stainless and mild. To keep the machine busy we would do contract work - people could bring their designs and we would cut them out. Price was dependent on a whole bunch of stuff - how complete the design was, whether our inhouse engineers needed to work on it (expensive), whether the customer was supplying materials and so forth.

I wasn't able to use any of this equipment to make guitar parts (we only cut steel) but it was really nice for making jigs and templates. Here is the cutout template for a tri cone resonator guitar



And here is the laser making sparks



That actually is the name of the company that builds the cnc laser. It did make the grills for the tricone on the laser

 

[Repoman]

Sendcutsend is amazing. Been using them for about 3 years. Their prices an ship times are so good I'm constantly holding my breath until they are bought out by some big investment firm and turned to crap as is par for the course these days with all good businesses *cough Reverb*...

 

[Sea Devil]

I'm glad I brought this up! It seems like a valuable resource that should be more widely known.

 

[fenderchamp]

I bought raw stainless neck plates and control plates from sendcutsend, no regrets.

 

[Peegoo]

If you plan to use an MDF template more than twice, it's good practice to get a large bottle of water-thin CA and soak the edges of the template(s) where the router's bearings ride. Do this with plenty of ventilation. A fan on low speed is a huge help to push the vapors away from your face.

The CA makes the edge as hard as one made from polycarbonate, and it will probably require a very light sanding with 220 paper on a block to smooth it out. But it is worth the additional work. I have MDF templates 25+ years old that are still working as well as when new.

Left untreated, the bearing will smoosh the edge of the template due to the router's vibration, and the accuracy of cut will suffer.

 

[Sea Devil]

Excellent advice, Peegoo! I've been watching a lot of videos about cutting pickguards, and I noticed that the soft edges of the MDF were often scarred after just a light pass with the router. That's precisely why I would have paid more for acrylic.

It's true that the fumes generated by applying CA to wood or MDF are incredibly noxious, especially with the water-thin formulation. When it flashes really quickly, you can even see the fumes. It's like breathing mustard gas.

If you have a really crappy, broken-down chip brush, that's what I find is best for soaking a surface with CA. If you keep it to a square inch or so at a time, it's tolerable and may even be relatively safe.

 

[Sea Devil]

I ordered the template and I'm looking forward to cutting the pickguard. I ordered four times the material I needed, so I can screw up a couple times and still be OK.

 

[Chuckster]

The CA makes the edge as hard as one made from polycarbonate, and it will probably require a very light sanding with 220 paper on a block to smooth it out. But it is worth the additional work.

This is interesting, and a great idea. I noticed this same issue when I created a very complex MDF template for my Yamaha SGV300 Flying Samurai.

Here's a thought that I may test out: I use Solarez UV Cure for fly-tying, and they make a water-thin version. No fumes, and it dries hard with a flash of the light. Worth looking into... thanks for the tip @Peegoo !

 

[Steve Holt]

I've never used their mdf services, though I'm about to as soon as I get my new bass designed. I've used them for cutting metal for guitar parts and jigs and it's been great. I've got a batch of parts in the mail right now, another batch in production, and a shopping cart full of parts for a bass bridge I'm designing that I haven't pulled the trigger on.

You can't beat $29 no minimum order + free shipping.

 

[Peegoo]

No fumes, and it dries hard with a flash of the light.

That's a good idea; you could paint it on with a little foam brush.

Make sure it wicks all the way into the MDF before hitting it with the UV because if it lays on the surface it will change the dimensions of the template. That's the reason why medium and thicker CA formulas don't work; they set hard before they soak in.

I also discovered water-based finishes will cause the MDF to expand, so avoid those. I've tried a bunch of approaches to this and the CA has worked best thus far.

Please let us know how your Solarez experiment works, @Chuckster; I'd be interested in that.

 

[SRHmusic]

I have used them for 0.1in aluminum sheet faceplates, with edge routing and a number of different size drilled holes. They did a nice job, at a great price including shipping. I just created a .step file using the Python CQ Editor package and a short script, and drag and dropped the file into their web quote tool.

 

[Chuckster]

Please let us know how your Solarez experiment works, @Chuckster; I'd be interested in that.

Will do, I'll do a test on a scrap. Solarez makes some great products.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Send-Cut-Send has an excellent reputation in the Maker community, especially for metal parts, but they do many kinds of materials. Folks also use services like them and others when they are fine with prototyping "at home" with easy to use materials including PLA from a 3D printer, but then have the final parts cut in material more appropriate for the intended long-term use.