Good advices for a newbie (threading tools lathe)

[C-Bag]

I hope I'm not hyjacking or belaboring the point, but I was trying to think of a pic of my trick for the plasma cutter and the only piece I have in the garage is the cover I made for the front of my mill/drill. I put a digital readout on the z axis and needed to replace the old plastic cover so I plasma cut this. I hope it will demonstrate what I was trying to describe. I first came up with this when I was having to make chain guards for belt drives in the packing houses I worked in. None of them had breaks either so this is how I got around it. It is that black cover and look close at the edge of the cover where the cut is, and the 1" "breaks" in the cut.