Design your own dang mouthpiece

[chronolith]

Maybe someone has gone down this path already. Looking for opinions and wisdom (and the requisite amount of TNFJ snark ).

I was wondering if anyone has ever produced some kind of CNC cross section design of a mouthpiece that they had themselves designed and had an online firm like http://www.emachineshop.com/" target="_blank" target="_blank cut it and send it to you? Looks like they can cut it in stainless steel and other materials.

Going to play around with it a little bit, but curious if anyone has had first hand experience with a process similar to this.

Thanks in advance.

[sloan]

Going to play around with it a little bit, but curious if anyone has had first hand experience with a process similar to this.

I'm experimenting with using a 3D printer. I did some early work on "hobby-level" printers, just
to work out the design pipeline. I have "industrial strength" printers now - but haven't had time
to print any mouthpieces, yet.

You might look into Shapeways for prototyping in plastic - and go to CNC only when you
are fairly confident you have something worth commiting to metal.

I mostly write custom Java programs to create models - but for those just starting out I recommend
an OpenSource program called "OpenSCAD". I also recommend "MeshLab" for visualization and some interesting options on surface mesh manipulation. Most people take about 2 weeks to get up to speed and competent in using these two programs. There are, of course, many other paths - these are just two "easy entry" programs that I know and can recommend.

[Donn]

You might look into Shapeways for prototyping in plastic - and go to CNC only when you are fairly confident you have something worth commiting to metal.

Do you have any experience with the materials they offer, for example would the `fine detail' acrylic work for a mouthpiece? I suppose it would have to be reasonably rigid, not so brittle that you'd worry about cracking the shank but stiff enough that you'd notice problems in the shank fit.

Would CNC take the same data set, or would you start over from scratch to produce the CNC instructions?

Supposing that the eventual result is a revolutionary step forward, or maybe just something you think the world needs, like a new clone of the Bach 24AW. Are there mouthpiece makers out there who have room for small production runs of vanity mouthpieces, in brass?

[UDELBR]

Are there mouthpiece makers out there who have room for small production runs of vanity mouthpieces, in brass?

Just as in vanity publishing, anything for a price.

[sloan]

≈

Do you have any experience with the materials they offer, for example wou d the `fine detail' acrylic work for a mouthpiece? I suppose it would have to be reasonably rigid, not so brittle that you'd worry about cracking the shank but stiff enough that you'd notice problems in the shank fit.

Would CNC take the same data set, or would you start over from scratch to produce the CNC instructions?

No direct experience. ABS works surprisingly well, but with all such materials you should expect a final, manual, cleaning and polishing step. I have not personally done CNC, but I would be astounded if it were difficult to move from one to the other (for easy objects like mouthpieces).

To give you and idea of what you can do with ABS in a 3D printer (I challenge anyone to do this with CNC...):

AQsmall.jpg

[Donn]

Just as in vanity publishing, anything for a price.

Of course, but who's going to be able to pay $500 for those 24AW clones? I'm talking about something affordable enough that there would actually be a point in making a small production run, assuming sold `at cost' to offset the obviously uncompetitive aspects of a small production run.

[chronolith]

Well, I played around with the emachineshop tools and had it price me out for a basic CNC design I put together. Very rudimentary design with a couple of arcs in it and no rounded edges. I must have set the precision tolerances a little too high. Initial cost for a single prototype with shipping came out to just under $300.

Need to dig deeper.