Cabinet doors pywood panel cutting

[dave1119]

Ok , I 'm really going to expose my lack of woodworking skills here but I want to know tips and tricks of working with a 4x8 sheet of oak plywood (1/4") thickness. I will cut this down into smaller pieces for inside flat panels for cabinet doors.

My question is cutting that inital large piece with circ. saw and best way to square up. For example if I cut a panel out say 14"x20" for a door , what method is best to insure a squared piece. In other words, how do I start making sure I'm working with a squared piece to begin with? Should I cut the large piece into 2 or 4 more manageable pieces and then TS it? Just looking for best way to minimize waste. Thanks.

[poolhound]

First thing is to make sure you start out with a good piece of ply that is nice and flat and has clean factory edges. Factory edges are nearly always straight and corners are usually sq - DO CHECK.

Work out your cutlist and ideally cut strips from the large sheet that will be the same width or length that can then be sub divided into a number of similar pieces.

One of these edge guides is a godsend if you dont have one then you can make something similar from a straight piece of MDF (MDF factory edges are great). Cut your strips slightly oversize and you should then have two straight edges although not necessarily perfectly parallel depending on how well you used your framing sq . Now setup your TS for your final strip width and run the best edge against the fence.



Now you should have a bunch of strips with parallel edges the widths you want. In theory if you can always refer to a factory corner you could rotate them 90 degrees and rip again but I have never had much luck doing it this way and if some of your strips are from the middle of a sheet you are out of luck.

Here is where your trusty panel sled comes into play. If you dont have one they are really easy to make and will give you bang on sq panels time after time.

First make a trim cut on the leading edge then mark up your desired size, set the mark against the edge of the panel sled, cut and there you go a perfectly sized sq panel. Remember that the good piece is the one left on the sled NOT the offcut!



Now just step and repeat until you have all the panels you want. Hope this helps and do let us know how you get on.

[dewi1219]

Also, for reference I always make a pencil line along all four factory edges of sheet goods before I go at it with the circular saw. That way, once I have the sheet cut down and the smaller pieces are ready to go to the table saw I know which edge is straight at a glance.

[dave1119]

What is your usual guideline on determining TS or Circ. saw based on size of this type of plywood. As far as safety is concerned. Assuming bt3000 with stock fence and tables.

[poolhound]

What is your usual guideline on determining TS or Circ. saw based on size of this type of plywood. As far as safety is concerned. Assuming bt3000 with stock fence and tables.

Unless you are working with only small pieces at a stock BT some form of outfeed or side table support should always be used.

I dont think anybody feels "happy" trying to manhandle a full sheet of ply through any TS on their own unless you have a huge sliding table saw (no room in my shop for one of those )

I feel comfortable once I have a 4x4 or 2x8 piece or even a 3x8 sometimes using the TS. However if I am already cutting down a large sheet with my CS I usually cut it into logical sizes first.

As it happens I was making some drawers this past weekend and when it came to the bottoms I cut down my 4x8 sheet of ply into 4 21" x 4' strips first with the CS and then sized them to final dimensions at the TS.

[RyFitz13]

I'll second the notion of the necessity of a good panel cutting sled. I just read about them here in another thread a couple weeks ago. Last week, I threw one together before I cut up an 8x4 sheet of 3/4 birch ply for some shop cabinets and let me say: that was a HUGE time saver!!!

It took me all of 20 minutes to cut and assemble the sled (and that included fine tuning a hardwood miter slot runner). After that, I cut down the 8x4 sheet with a circ saw into 4 2x4 sections - each just a little bit longer (wider?) than they needed to be. The two end pieces I simply ripped (using the long edge from the original 8x4 sheet) as a reference, then squared up the end I had cut with the circular saw, to cut each panel to length. For the two middle 2x4 sections, I also ripped them to size, referencing off of the long factory edges, then shaved just enough off of one end of each panel to square up the circ saw cut, then cut to length from the opposite end.

I probably spent less time cutting the panels than I did assembling the panel saw, since it made set up that much easier.

For the space I have available to me, I felt very comfortable with the 2x4 sections. In hindsight, I think I could have handled 4x4 pretty easily as well.

[cabinetman]

I do a rectangular layout on a sheet of paper that represents a 4'x8' sheet. I draw the sizes I need on that sheet. I always cut the largest ones first. If you have to use a circular saw, measure over from a factory edge, and place your straightedge, and allow a cut off edge of 1/4" that you can trim on the TS.

For crosscutting on the TS, a sled will be the best way, especially if they are longer than they are wide.
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