PSA: Use round tabs

I just wanted to say it again: Use round tabs! It shaves the time of the next job I am going to do from 180 minutes to 90… It’s such a gamechanger…

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How do round tabs work?

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This checkbox. :slight_smile:

The tabs need to be a lot bigger at the bottom because they are 0 at the top, so 8 or 10mm tabs with a height of 8mm or so should be the minimum. :slight_smile:

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I always use 5x5 mm tabs not rounded

Yeah, and it’s taking soooo much more time because the CNC stops, goes up at Z speed, then goes down at Z speed… with round tabs it just “hops” over it without slowing down.

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ahhh…

Anbindungen verrunden!!

Of course… why didn’t I think of that?

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Obviously you have it in English. It says round tabs. :face_savoring_food:

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:stuck_out_tongue:

I haven’t seen that interface since last December…

no idea what those things are…

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It’s brilliant, you should have a look. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I don’t even understand what a round tab mean!?

Someone correct me if I am mistaken. Instead of a flat top tab for holding through cuts, it is rounded over.

Sounds like it saves time by going over the tab while moving up/ down rather than stopping, moving up, then over and back down.

Hopefully that makes sense.

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IME, round tabs work well with large parts/holes, but for small parts/holes, you need to make the tab size very large, which is a PITA for cutting the tabs out .

I was cutting 50mm circles out of 1/4" (6mm) plywood. With rounded tabs, I needed to make the tab height almost full height, and almost 15mm long. With straight tabs, I could get away with 2mm height and 4mm long. The larger rounded tabs needed a lot of work with an exacto knife to remove, while the straight tabs cut out quickly and easily.

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Aha! Now I get it. Thanks :smiley:

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I also do it for very small things. The tabs aren’t really getting bigger, even if you make them 10x10. It’s still a triangle. :slight_smile:

I keep my tabs the same height and add 3-4mm in width. They are smaller overall but for me easier to work with, and faster.

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Neat, will try rounded tabs. Am using oscillating multi tool (that seems to mostly live at the bench now) to quickly cut through tabs when speed vs finesse is preferred.

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I got all excited to try this, turns out I already had it on! In my experience, it makes pyramids when you do 20 mm length and max depth… I’ll have to make those shorter to speed this thing up!

Meanwhile, the pyramids look really cool in plywood. I like to imagine it’s a little world landscape/movie set sometimes and take pics like these:


Light source is the LED strip under my X beam. It’s always different looking depending on the wood, proximity to light, what the spoil board looks like, etc.

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Sounds like we might see a script for your movie one of these days after a long cutting session.

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