Planning a cut list: kerf, allowances and grain direction

A cut list is the bridge between a drawing and a pile of parts. A good one tells you what to cut, from what, in what order, and how big. A poor one is where most wasted boards and short sheets come from.

What a cut list should contain

For every part:

• A name and reference. “Left side” or “P05”, matching the drawing, and written on the part as soon as it is cut.
• Finished dimensions. Length, width and thickness as they will be in the finished piece.
• Material. Species and form: solid wood, plywood, MDF.
• Grain direction. Length is along the grain unless the list says otherwise. For plywood and veneered panels, note which way the face grain runs on show surfaces.
• Quantity.

Sort the list by material and thickness. Each group is what you will cut from one kind of stock.

Solid wood: allowances before finished size

Solid wood is rarely cut straight to finished size from a board. It is rough cut oversize, milled flat and square, and then cut to final dimensions. See milling rough lumber for the sequence.

Typical allowances when you rough cut:

Dimension	Allowance
Length	1” to 2” over, more for long parts or where planer snipe is likely
Width	1/4” to 1/2” over
Thickness	buy the next nominal thickness up; see board feet

Rough cut the longest and widest parts first, while you still have long, wide boards. Short parts come from what is left.

Sheet goods: kerf and layout

Sheet parts are usually cut directly to finished size, so the layout has to account for the width of every saw cut, the kerf:

Saw	Typical kerf
Full-kerf table saw blade	about 1/8”
Thin-kerf table saw blade	about 3/32”
Track saw or circular saw	varies by blade; measure it

Kerf is not something you add to each part. It is the space between parts on the sheet. Four parts 12 inches wide do not come out of a 48-inch-wide sheet with a 1/8-inch kerf: three cuts between them take 3/8 inch, and the factory edges may need a trim as well. Either make the parts slightly narrower, cut them from a wider sheet, or plan one part from another sheet.

Other sheet-layout habits:

• Trim factory edges that are dented or not square before measuring from them.
• Keep the face grain consistent on doors, drawer fronts and visible panels. It limits how freely parts can be rotated on the sheet.
• Break sheets down into manageable pieces with a track saw or circular saw, slightly oversize, then make final cuts on the table saw.
• Label offcuts with their size. They are the first place to look for small parts.

Order of operations

1. Cut parts that others are sized from first. A face frame or a case is often built before the doors and drawers that fit it, which are then sized from the actual opening.
2. Cut all parts that must be identical in one session, against a stop, without changing the setup.
3. Leave test pieces from the same stock for setting up joinery.
4. Mark every part with its name and reference face as it comes off the saw.

Build in the uncertainty

Plans rarely survive contact with real stock unchanged. Wood arrives thinner than expected, a knot lands in the wrong place, a sheet measures 23/32 rather than 3/4. Keep a little extra material and time, and update the list when the actual stock changes a dimension, as described in nominal and actual sizes.

In GrainDraft

GrainDraft’s stock list is generated from the model: each part’s finished length, width, thickness, material and board feet, with the kerf you enter in inches or millimetres. It exports as CSV or PDF. For plywood and MDF, the sheet layout arranges parts on quarter, half or full sheets with the kerf between them and prints a pencil-marking PDF that measures each part from a datum corner; parts that do not fit are listed rather than dropped. Add your own milling allowances for solid wood.

Related: board feet, dadoes and rabbets in plywood.