It’s under the little gear icon – “hide details.” 
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Oh!
Like this?
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You can learn all sorts of things when you’re post-surgical and bored out of your mind. 
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Ruth, this is fantastic. I’m going to read it more carefully this evening and maybe set up a test run following what you did.
The finger parts are sort of a no-brainer, so I also worked with just the holes/slots. For instance with 1/4" acrylic, using the entire kerf .016", I just make one of the holes as a box that is .250 x .234 (.250 - .016), then duplicate the box for as many as I need for one side, after that, duplicating and rotating until I have enough of them, then when lined up, combine them with the rectangle (box side).
Sounds sort of similar to your method, but I’ll need to read yours again this evening.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this.
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Excellent! Fills in a blank spot in the Matrix! (We didn’t have a writeup for AD.)
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Wonderful job of explaining, and I really like the detail hiding thingy—it does help. I think it’s useful to know how to design something from scratch, even if there’s a tool that works. It’s kinda like making a loaf of bread from scratch even though you can buy a loaf much cheaper (but not necessarily better).
And does this mean you have had your surgery (again) and are in recovery mode? If so, best wishes and feel better soon!
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Not yet! It was supposed to be May 20, but they pushed it out to June 3 so they can have 2 surgeons there…apparently my other ankle was too much work for just one! 
I’m working on setting up a small crafting space right next to my bed so I don’t go quite as bonkers this time. I can’t fit the GF there, so I got a Cricut to keep me busy until I can be upright long enough to 'forge. And the GF will be moving upstairs before I go under the knife, too – the stairs were a huge obstacle last time, because even when I got to the point of being able to navigate them, it still took so much energy that I didn’t have any left for 'forging!
Anyway, I was designing a printer stand to make space for paper storage underneath the printer, and figured I’d throw together the tutorial while it was fresh in my mind.
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You need to rig up a Wallace and Grommit style bed. 
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This is very useful! Thank you for sparing me a lot of trial and error.
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Thanks for the great write-up! Kerf is something I’ve mostly been ignoring, but I’m tackling a project where it’s important. This will definitely help!
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would not boxes.py do this?
Sure, if you’re happy with how they come out and don’t want to do any fancy stuff. I started doing my own when I designed my Mastermind game box.
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Well, I tried it. Took me forever. I took away some key points, which I really appreciate. Thanks again.
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Nice write-up!
I keep a set of long fingers saved as a file I can drop into any drawing and cut to size. That keeps all the scrap with interchangeable fingers; that scrap from different projects fit with each other, These I glue at right angles that have many uses.
By making the fingers a bit long and using a guide for depth the other end overhangs and I get a clean cut. It does not take many times cleaning up that line connecting the end of all those fingers to not want to make it a habit, By playing with the line thickness I try to adjust for kerf; but I use copies of the side pieces to subtract from the bottom piece so I am sure they will fit. I can also copy and mirror a piece and use intersection to do the other side. That way you only do the hard part once.
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You could use one of these:
I was given one years ago and I happily used it to do my beading in bed when I was too tired to sit up. Unfortunately I lent it to someone in temporary need and it broke.
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I’ve updated the steps to add a “check the fit” option (step 3) before finalizing kerf adjustments. It was a sudden impulse and I have to get ready for work, so there aren’t any screen shots for that step, sorry!
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Thanks for this! I just started using Affinity Designer and I’m going to give this a try.
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[Preface: I felt this topic was worth bumping despite its age, because I stumbled upon it recently and it seriously helped me finally conceptualize finger joints.]
I think I just found a simpler method based on this process…at least, in Illustrator. Not sure if it applies to Affinity. Rather than stroke, expand, divide, and delete…you just use Offset Path and set the offset to 1/2 your kerf (the amount that’s lost from your actual material, since the other half goes to adjacent material. This instantly creates a new path with that 1/2 kerf addition wrapped around it (as though you added a stroke aligned to the outside vs center). It leaves your original path alone, so you can delete it or save it in a separate layer in case you need to change kerf adjustment for other material, etc. It also means no futzing with stroke widths, so you can keep those at whatever makes your work easiest to see or whatnot. The worst thing involved is some math of decimal fractions, but you can make Illustrator do that right in the dialogue box. Just type [kerf]/2 and it’ll do the math as soon as you click away from the field or press OK.
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Using Inkscape, setting the line with to the kerf, then stroke to path and break apart makes each line offset by the correct amount such that I am needing to use clamps to get it together, and a touch of the nail file to ease the corners just a bit to get it started.
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I know. I have a 3D printer I have never used because I can’t get the software.
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