Tape + CA question

[Brian Tymchak]

Tabs and leaving a few thousands uncut both eliminate the necessity of using tape and CA glue, but both come with their own compromise. The problem with tabs is that the workpiece ends up having little vertical lines on the side where the bit stopped moving forward so that the Z axis can move up whatever the height is before moving forward, and then repeats where it steps back down. This even happens with 3D tabs for me. Those lines are very difficult to clean up in hard wood. And then there's still the matter of having to remove the tab.

I noticed those marks on my first experiment, but not the second or third. The only change from the first to second attempt was going from 0.08" thick tabs to 0.05" so that the tab would be completely trimmed with the 1/16" round over. I ended up concluding that I made those marks with the chisel when I cut the tabs, but now that you mention them, my conclusion is likely wrong. But I can't explain why I didn't get those marks on runs 2 & 3.

In my particular case, the tab is completely removed with the round over I was doing anyway.

[Jim Becker]

"Onion Skin" is definitely cleaner than tabs for the reason that John T mentioned. When the part(s) are large enough that gravity and friction are helpful, the onion skin can be removed as an additional profile toolpath that is only cutting away the onion skin at the bottom of the path to free the part(s)

[Jerome Stanek]

I use an Amana 3/16 flush cut bit to trim my skins or tabs

https://www.amazon.com/Amana-Tool-Mi...010C7W38W?th=1