The Slot Operation - FreeCAD CAM 1.1

Hello. Welcome to a new episode about using FreeCAD 1.1 together with the CAM workbench to generate G-code for the CNC. In this episode, we are going to talk about the slot operation. The slot operation is designed to cut slots through the material. We can either use slots that are already in the model, or we can select faces and create slots in the middle of the faces. We can also use circles or arcs to create slots that follow their shape. The very nice thing about the slot operation is that it has an option to start from outside of the model and also finish outside of the model. Very useful when using tool bits that don't have the ability to plunge into the material. Before moving on, I want to thank everybody that's supporting me, be it here on YouTube, on my Patreon page where you can find all the videos without any interruptions, without ads, or on my Ko-fi page where you can make a one-time small donation, and you can also find a lot of things macros that I'm using in my videos, the FreeCAD CAM 1.1 book where you find all the information in the videos in a written format, and you can buy it either in a digital or in a physical format. And if you want an interactive learning experience, visit the link in the description of the video to book your spot in the FreeCAD CAM class that starts on May 14th. Let's first create a simple basic slots operation for this rectangular slot. Select the bottom face. Click on the slot button. And let's click apply. The default settings of the slot operation are pretty okay, except it doesn't start from outside of the model, and it also ends inside of the model. To change this behavior when using tool bits that don't have the ability to plunge into the material, we have two options here, extend path start and extend path end. Let's set their values to 20 mm. And now I have extended the slot operation, so the tool bit will plunge outside of the stock, and will also make the vertical movement to pass to the next layer outside of the model, outside of the stock. We can either use multi-pass and take into account the step down, or we can select single pass for layer mode, and this will only create a single pass. If your machine and the tool bit can handle cutting through the material all at once, this is the way to go. This is the way to get the fastest slot operation.