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Making Matters: Carving each violin part with a CNC machine

2025-08-01T08:55:00

3 Milling the inside

Stuart Ross and Paul Boardman explore the possibilities of using a CNC machine to carve each part of a violin, discovering how some stages benefit while others still need a luthier’s hand

Much has been written about the use of machines programmed using computer numerical control (CNC) in the making of stringed instruments. Some of it stems from the long-running debate about whether CNC should be used to replace a violin maker’s own hard toil, but this is a topic for another article. As a pair of amateur luthiers, we decided to investigate whether it was possible to use this method to carve a violin almost in its entirety. Of course we knew in advance that the instrument would have to be finished in the normal way, but we wanted to discover the potential for this technology, and how it could benefit makers in the long term…

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