I finally have a few updates I can publish about the progress on this model ...
after much anticipation, the first M-Series body has been exhumed from its body blank. I'm at the airport typing this, so I'll need to suppliment this post with further details later. Until then, here's a few images for your viewing pleasure
all of the laminates glued up into a single 'Hippie Sandwich'. the first image is in the clamps, the second is the outcome of the squeezing
![Image](http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/RegenerateGuitarWorks/M-Series/M5-Prototype/RGW-M5-GlueUp.jpg)
![Image](http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/RegenerateGuitarWorks/M-Series/M5-Prototype/RGW-M5-Sandwich.jpg)
After a couple weeks of resting to allow the moisture content (absorbed from the glue) an opportunity to return to around 6%, the rough body was "exhumed" from the sandwich
![Image](http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/RegenerateGuitarWorks/M-Series/M5-Prototype/RGW-M5-Exhumed-Front.jpg)
![Image](http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww146/RegenerateGuitarWorks/M-Series/M5-Prototype/RGW-M5-Exhumed-Back.jpg)
the little fish tale at the butt is remaining wood from where the body was clamped in the CNC holding jig. this is easily removed with a hand router and pattern bit prior to detail sanding
ammended to add:
if you're curious/concerned about the 'chewed up appearance' in places like the arm contour - be assured that it's 100% by design of the CNC tool path ... contrary to commonly held misconceptions in the general public, there's still a TON of skilled hand work to do after a body or neck is taken off the CNC. the ridges you see are easily knocked down with a hand-held sander, and refined with further sanding and use of a cabinet scraper. unlike machining metal parts, part of the woodworking trade-off with CNC is weighing the added machine time cost to create a part that has less ridges vs. what can easily be done by skilled hand work.
more machine time = a 'cleaner' part, but the cost to do this is a slower toolpath speed due to its higher resolution
it's entirely possible that cleaning up the body contours could take 30 - 45 minutes by hand, while running an additional tooling path with higher resolution could take an additiona 20-25 minutes and only reduce the hand time by 10 minutes.
wait until you see the completed images, I think you'll see that all is good
all the best,
R