Thanks guys - that makes sense - so conventional gives the machine an easier time but doesn't always produce a good finish, whilst climb beats the machine up a bit but finishes better, provided its sturdy enough.

I'll try a conventional version of the toolpaths and see how that goes on the other side of that block (hence the L Shaped locating bracket seen in one of the pics).

Whilst I remember I also have a MACH3 query if anyone knows the answer: when I Feedhold (to clear chips) and I hit Cycle Start to resume cutting, the operation I interrupted resumes, but at a much slower speed than before I hit Feedhold. Is there a way of stopping this behaviour as changing my feed rate is a bad idea......

Cheers


Chris