I went through the same thing. I used Corbin’s how-to (all of them, and several times, thanks Corbin!) as a starting point, but my issue came into losing so much of my cutting area. I cut a lot of full sheets, the full 8’, and losing 10-11" of area was killing me. I ended up gluing a few sheets of MDF together as a test, and I cut out I think 2" cylinders.
I then went out to just under my soft max, and then I started setting my tool areas. I loaded a tool, put the cylinder around it, then lowered it until it was close to the surface I was gluing it to, through on some superglue, then raised it, over 3.3" (think that’s what it was), set the next and so on.
They are mounted on a couple MDF rails, which are currently just glued down in test fashion with blue tape. But it’s been 5-6 weeks, and it works, so I haven’t changed it to something nicer. I think my cylinder
walls are like 1/4", and what I needed to do is sand an angle on the edge facing the work area, to the point where the top edge is almost gone at that point. This allows me to cut the full 8’ area. However, if I want to cut the full 8’, I have to remove all the tools, as at my spindle mount position, the extrusion would still clip the tool holders when cutting at the back.
I had to adjust the inner step a bit for a couple tools that are 1.5" dia. so I have 3 that the tools sitting a little lower. I adjusted the tool bump in Corbin’s code as well, as it was aggressive for this setup using RM spindle.
The dust show was the reason I went this route over the holes. I actually 3d printed some initial versions (it was fun watching the tool bump destroy that first one), then realized it’s so easy to knock out more as needed with mdf, make tweaks and such, so I went with that. I currently have 8, with room for another few, but will likely use a fork with a side load in the back for my one larger fly cutter at some point.