Hi Guys,
OK, I understand about breaking the tool. I also downloaded CamBam and messed with it a bit.
I got the part programmed correctly and cut the part in steel without issue. So far so good. There was a lot of fooling around with the math to get the cutter offset correct. I am a old guy and now have to work harder to deal with math in general. I advise never getting old...lol
I am looking forward to the time when I can use the tool radius offsets. I'll get there. The CNC Programming Handbook arrived today and I looked at it a bit. It seems to be pretty well written and understandable. Many of the issues I am faced with have less to do with CNC than just machining in general.
Another option I considered today was to power coat the part and just make it out of steel. I actually may try that as a test in any event. The part is not subject to very much abrasion just the effect of fertilizer for the most part and some type of coating may work well enough.
At least I got the part cut out of steel and that is pretty good progress for me. It is for sure not a complex part but for my first attempt at hand writing code it was a bit of a challenge.
Anyway, thanks for all the help and feedback.
Billy