Plywood Cut Calculator
Lay your parts out on full sheets and see how to cut them. Gives you a diagram for every sheet, how many you need to buy, and how much of each one ends up as offcut. Blade kerf included.
Start from a plan on this site
| Part | Length (in) | Width (in) | Qty | Can rotate | Remove |
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Untick can rotate on any part where the grain has to run a particular way. Plywood face grain runs along the 8 foot length of a standard sheet.
How the layout is worked out
Parts are sorted biggest first and packed into horizontal bands across the sheet, adding the blade kerf between every cut. When a band fills up, a new one starts below it. When the sheet runs out, a new sheet starts. This is a guillotine-friendly layout, which matters: it means every cut runs clean across the piece you are working on, so you can actually make these cuts with a track saw or a table sled rather than needing a CNC.
It will not always find the theoretical best arrangement, because that problem is genuinely hard to solve exactly. For a normal project list it gets close, and it has the advantage of producing a layout you can follow with hand tools.
Break sheets down before you cut them accurately
A full sheet of 3/4 inch plywood is around 96 pounds and unwieldy on a table saw on your own. The usual approach is to rough-cut the sheet into manageable pieces with a circular saw and a straight edge, leaving each piece about half an inch oversize, then cut to the final line once the piece is a size you can control. Our guide to using a circular saw covers getting a straight cut without a track, and measuring and marking covers keeping the layout accurate once the sheet is down.
Grain direction is not optional
Plywood face grain runs the long way on a standard sheet. On a bookcase side or a cabinet door, running the grain the wrong way is immediately visible and looks like a mistake, because it is one. Untick can rotate for those parts and accept the extra sheet if the layout needs it. On hidden parts like a cabinet back or a drawer bottom, let it rotate and save the material.
Deciding between sheet goods and solid timber in the first place? Plywood vs MDF vs solid wood compares them on cost, strength and how they behave. For solid boards rather than sheets, use the cut list calculator.
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