Margins for Tab & Slot Construction?

Technical Details
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My next project is a very shallow ramp for a cabinet over a refrigerator in an RV. The ramp will (hopefully) provide just enough inducement to the items stored in the cabinet to not wander to the back of the cabinet where we can’t reach them. There’s a lip at the front of the cabinet to keep things from pressing against the cabinet door and popping it open.

I have already realized that I should probably add dogbones to the corners of the slots and tabs so I don’t have to spend extra time with a chisel or saw squaring my holes (see Tab and slot corners if you don’t know what I’m talking about here)

RampOverFridge
RampOverFridge1724×845 118 KB

My question is how much margin should I add to the slots so I can get the tabs to go in? My board is 0.25" MDF, which tends to be very consistent thickness, but I assume that if I make my slots exactly 0.25" wide, I will have trouble getting the tabs to go into the slots.

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My answer would be to do a smaller test project to get the numbers that you need. Because I’m going to guess that each person’s M4 will do things slightly differently.

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I was afraid that was the answer. Not that that is hard, just slows me down from cutting my part. :laughing:

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Here’s an OnShape design for a tester. Onshape

SlotTester
SlotTester1071×465 53.1 KB

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Check out this onshape plugin to add the dogbone shape to your cuts supper fast

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That’s great! I used to use OnShape a lot and then stopped doing much CAD on any platform. So I’m very out-of-date regarding features and add-ons. I’ll have to learn how to use FeatureScript (or at least how to use someone else’s FeatureScript on my designs).

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Bar wrote:

Check out this onshape plugin to add the dogbone shape to your cuts supper fast

Dogbone and Corner Overcut Features for CNC router design — Onshape

I especially like the corner overcut that only cuts as much as needed for your
other part to fit rather than doing a full half-bit past the corner.

David Lang

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John Wolter wrote:

That’s great! I used to use OnShape a lot and then stopped doing much CAD on
any platform. So I’m very out-of-date regarding features and add-ons. I’ll
have to learn how to use FeatureScript (or at least how to use someone else’s
FeatureScript on my designs).

right click on it and you can then add it to your toolbar and use it like any
other feature.

David Lang

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