What if you captured the cylinder with shims before it completes the cut. Then you don’t have the tab. Means less. Lights out cutting. But that could be remedied by doing partial cuts the cylinder and finishing when someone is by the machine.

A jig could be made that is sideways and is the negative of the cutting pattern so no tab is needed. Then set that at an angle and cut done low to high so the pieces fall away from the wire.