hello rdnck this is what i was going to write before reading your reply ( i forget to write this yesterday )

4) PZ
5) load monitor 1

for 2,4&5 you may find code samples at post 64 in here : http://www.cnczone.com/forums/okuma/...tor-stuff.html

about 3, there is a posibility for it not to work, if the tool is small and high rpm is used : as a result, there may be less than 1% difference between "cutting air" and "cutting material"; if this may be fixed for metal ( by adjusting specs so to create a stable difference of at least 1% ), for plastics it may be harder, simply because the cnc can not feel it however, even at 1% things are tricky, but not impossible

Load monitor and G23 will not work. The material that cut doesn't create a load on the spindle or any of my XYZ CM axis. And I don't believe the G23 will work because the slots go all the way through the part so you're tool Shank will never touch to satisfy
my dear sir, who said that contact is required ? wait, wait ... and there should a smile on your face

slots go all the way through the part ...... inside diameter of the part is 3.010
i really can not draw this part but i can suggest this approach :

a) groove is cut full depth at C=val
... go above the material at X=OD+2*cl, at C=val+180, at a position where the cutting tool should finish the groove
... check for no contact among X axis, on a segment that starts at current X, and has a length of cl+1
... if there is no contact, than tool delivered ( at least this time ) otherwise, cnc will stop

b) groove is cut depth/2 at C=val, and after that is cut the rest depth/2 at C=val+180
... replace segment length from above with cl + radius + 0.5

* cl = clearance; recomended value is 5, but it may work also at 2.5, especially when a low feed is used

what do you think ? should i start writing code ? kindly