George Vondriska

Cutting Plywood for Accuracy

George Vondriska
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Duration:   8  mins

Want to build cabinets? If so, you’ll probably be using plywood or some other man-made sheet stock for the carcasses. Cutting plywood can be tricky. Who wants to flop those big sheets onto a table saw? It’s much easier to take the tool to the work in this case, instead of the work to a tool. A track saw makes short work of cutting plywood to size. But there are tricks you should pay attention to, in order to get accurate cabinet parts.

Sequence

It’s very important to make sure that the cabinet parts are consistently dimensioned. The length of each piece has to be the same. The width of each piece has to be the same. Paying close attention to the cutting sequence will help you accomplish this.

Start by squaring the plywood. As you work, keep in mind that we want to remove all the factory edges from the parts. Once an end is square you can start cutting parts to length. Be sure to cut enough plywood to satisfy all the parts you need. With the parts cut to length it’s easiest if you switch from a track saw to an edge guide. This will keep the width of your pieces consistent.

More on cabinetmaking

When you get the hang of cabinet making the door opens for you to build shop or kitchen cabinets, vanities, book cases, and more. WoodWorkers Guild of America offers a great deal of instruction on cabinetmaking. Check it out.

More info

For more info on the Kreg Track Saw, and other Kreg products, visit www.kregtool.com, or call (800) 447-8638.

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8 Responses to “Cutting Plywood for Accuracy”

  1. Tim Gaffron

    Hi George, Have you had any issue with the saw track slipping since it’s not clamped down?

  2. Rich

    Just curious, once you got the plywood to a “manageable size, why didn’t you use the table saw instead of the circular saw?

  3. Ed Eldridge

    Hi George, I have a question in reference to the "cutting plywood for accuracy" video. When using a track saw, you allowed for the width of the blade when making a cut with the motor of the saw on the waste side of the cut. if you turned around and cut from the opposite direction, with the motor on the keep side, you could place the track on the cut line and not have to allow for blade width. Is this a good practice or would I lose accuracy with measurements?

  4. Anne

    I am a new woodworker, and probably have a stupid question. How did you avoid nicking the supporting frame when cutting the big plywood sheets?

  5. Robert G VanValkenburg

    what direction does a table saw blade go teeth going down or up and what about a cir saw all ways get it wrong

  6. leninsebastopol

    As the factory edge is not square then taking a line from it with the rule is not true either, no? Or is it simply avoiding edge chips & dings? And, thanks, Paul.

  7. Roger

    I have always squared every plywood piece cut from a sheet of plywood. That still implies to me that mfgr. should shoot for square themselves out of the shute.

  8. Daniel

    I have been a woodworker since High School. (30 + years) I was always taught to keep the factory edge. Why do you say "cut it off"?

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