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None of the builders merchants or DIY stores near me, offer a wood cutting service.
I would like to cut a 5.5mm plywood 2400 x 1200mm sheet in half, to make to square pieces.
What is the best way to make a neat, straight cut?
I was thinking using a Dremel with a 38mm cutting disc? Would it make a neat cut or cause a load of splinters and cracking?
Yeah, one of those. I used a jigsaw with the only blade that I could find to do a load and the thinness of the ply and the curves made it a terrible cutting experience.
Wouldn't be my 1st choice but is the a B&Q near you that offers a cutting service or do you need the sheet delivered as well?
Tracksaw.
Where are you based? Someone close to you may have one and be willing to help
The nearest B&Q is an hour away.
We have a builders merchant but they don't do the cutting.
I'll try and find a tame joiner who can do it for me.
Bear in mind Plywood is typically 2440x1220, so you'll need to do more than 1 cut if you want 1.2m squares.
As long as you can get it home in one piece, cutting it with a hand saw really doesn't take that long, probably quicker than messing about driving somewhere. Just clamp the sheet with a few pieces of 2x4 wood or box/angle section or similar to use as a cutting guide if you want it really straight and to keep it from flexing too much.
Hand saw and clamped or even screwed cls/timber baton
I’d mess it up with a handsaw. Track saw pretty much guarantees straight accurate cuts if you measure properly. You may even be able to buy the timber online pre cut at the size you want it?
Chewing through it would be preferable to a dremmel for a job like that.
Could use a router and a fence. Especially if you want it bevelled.
But track saw for fast accurate cuts
Handsaw would be fine. And give a much better job than a jigsaw if you're cack handed
You must know someone likely to own a circular saw if not a track saw. That + a straight edge (long spirit level, nice piece of timber) + 2 clamps will do the job in 10 seconds.
Reading between the lines, I think a tame joiner might be the best option, no offence intended.
If you think a dremel is a sensible idea you might want to get someone to help!
If you do borrow a track / circular / jig watch some safety vids on youtube about how to keep all your fingers
The best answer is a track saw, though if you clamp a straight edge you can do it with a variety of tools.
So to do it well as well as the cutting tool you will need clamps and saw horses of a decent enough size to take a full sheet. I use 3 or 4 horses on long cuts as you want both sides fully supported as you cut
Do not under any circumstances attempt it with a dremel!
Handsaw is way easier, trust me, even if you think you'd mess it up it'll still be better than messing it up with power, with 100000 tiny cuts. Just take your time, and cut fairly shallow so that the length of the saw tends to keep you straight, and try not to cut your leg off.
Tracksaw would make it super easy and yep see if you can find one that has one, everyone on STW has one parked beside their woodburner. Just the ideal tool for the job.
Asssuming that B&Q offer a cutting service, then spend the hour driving there!
Unless you have a neighbour who’ll help, arranging a joiner will take more money and more time!
A sharp panel saw will do an amazing job if you know what you’re doing - I suggest buying one for any given capable neighbour who’ll help and giving it to them when they’ve made the cut!
Don't use a track saw without a decent cutting table for support.
SCM make decent panel saws and have a lot of capacity with large sliding tables and a digital display.
More than enough for cross-cutting an 8x4.
Get one of them I'd say.
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Use the scribing blade though and you'll get a cleaner cut across the grain 👍
Try another merchant (others will cut) or drive to B&Q it'll probably be quicker than getting tools together to do it yourself.
5.5mm ply can be cut easily with a good sharp Stanley knife and a straight edge. Just keep our left hand out the way! 3 or 4 passes with a sharp blade should be all that's needed.
A Rotozip spiral saw would do it - Dremel on steroids - cheap used full kits still around as lots were sold to folks who never used them - bit of a niche but I used mine for a few jobs , bit of a niche really but for about £20 very capable .
hardest thing is getting a big floppy sheet into a good place to chop it up
There's must be somewhere in Berwick that can do it?
kayak ftw! 🙂
kayak23
Full Member
Don’t use a track saw without a decent cutting table for support.
Why not? Just chuck some random bits of offcut or wood (nail free!) or whatever under it and set the depth to be just thicker than the board. I mostly just use mine on the ground
Assuming you don't want to make a large investment in tools, and the Dremel is a horrible idea, I would say your options are:
- Drive to the nearest place that will cut it for you
- Cut it with a hand saw.
Personally I'd go for option 2, even if It meant buying a new handsaw to do so (although I wouldn't in reality, because obvs I have a tracksaw).
You haven't said what this is for - but you might want to consider how square the squares need to be, and adjust your cut/cuts appropriately, don't assume the the board is starting with perfect 90 degree corners
5.5mm will be like butter to a new handsaw. Each stroke about 20cm of cut.
Put away the Dremel or nail clippers. Quality handsaw - BAHCO 9TPI WOOD HARD-POINT SAW 22" ?
I use two big bits of 2" thick stiff packing foam on the ground to support 8x4's when tracksawing. Easier to cart around than a pile of proper trestles.
Don’t use a track saw without a decent cutting table for support.Why not?
Because I was being silly.
You saw the 40-50k industrial panel saw right? 😉
I can say from experience that trying to cut a 2440x1220 sheet on pallets on an uneven surface with a circular saw is less than satisfactory. I especially enjoy trying to find something I can clamp as a guide that will fit under the motor. Also love having to move the clamps every five seconds because they get in the way of the motor.
The best approach in my experience is cutting with a new handsaw in B and W carpark with the timber half wedged in the boot after you've realised there's no way in hell an 8 by 4 sheet is going in your car.
Fun and jokes aside, if you're going to put it on a roof rack I would have a couple of lengths of reasonably stout CLS or similar to support it with. 5.5mm will flex a lot and maybe even snap if the way home is windy or populated with HGVs going in the other direction*.
As to actual cutting, just use a handsaw.
*or both. Ask me how I know.
Impressed by Tom outing himself as even more useless than the OP. That takes some doing !
I have no shame in being useless!
I have nowhere suitable to secure the sheet even if I did have a handsaw and wasn't completely cack handed when it comes to anything wooden,
I didn't know woodworking carried such a badge of honour?
no badges of honour!
just those with fingers and those with ones missing 🙂
have one friend with one finger missing the last knuckle and above due to a circular saw mistake - bascially just running it over his own hand.....
For what its worth I can do lots of stuff with wood but for what ever reason I am truely crap with a standard hand saw. I use jap pull saws (if I have to) for anything precision and power tools for everything else.
I didn’t know woodworking carried such a badge of honour?
I'm just smug because I own a handsaw and have used it. Anything beyond that and I am utterly useless. Just enjoying my one solitary day in the Can camp.
Soz for any offence
If you haven’t got access to a track saw, then use a hand saw. Not just any hand saw - get a pull saw. It will cut 5.5mm ply cleanly without splintering in no time flat. Just draw a line across the sheet and saw along it. It’s much easier to follow the line with a pull saw than a conventional hand saw and much less effort too.
One like this:
https://www.irwin.eu/tools/handsaws/pull-saws
https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb874csw-1200w-165mm-electric-circular-saw-240v/230vv
Forty quid. Pays for itself in the first cut surely.
And you have it for the rest of your life. Titan stuff is absolutely fine for occasional DIY.
As for...
I can say from experience that trying to cut a 2440×1220 sheet on pallets on an uneven surface with a circular saw is less than satisfactory. I especially enjoy trying to find something I can clamp as a guide that will fit under the motor. Also love having to move the clamps every five seconds because they get in the way of the motor.
You've put the guide rail on the wrong side!
Done loads of sheets like this, resting on off cuts on the floor etc. It works fine, its all in the setup, the actual act of cutting in 10% of the effort.
Off course you can cut on the floor with offcuts supporting. you could also try and cut it with a dremel....
Right tool for the job is some proper saw horses positioned correctly to support both sides of the cut. (found out the scary way what happens if you just try and hold a bit of sheet 'by hand' as you cut with a track. blade jams / kick back / nice straight cut messed up....
I have 4 folding saw horses and they are used all the time - everything from temporary bbq table through to cutting sheet. Very useful things to have, and not expensive either.
If you are just going for a circular saw I picked up a plasterers straight edge of amazon for very little, I think less than £10. with 2 clamps that should do the trick and you don't need to worry about the wood being bowed or twisted (learnt that from experience of cocking up too)
@snotrag - that saw comes with a 24 tooth blade.
Will that be Ok for a clean cut?
It would cost at least another £15 to get a blade with more teeth.
Have we really reached the second page of a thread about cutting one sheet of 6mm plywood in half? Can anyone summarise and let me know how's the equipment inventory going as a multiple of the price of the piece of wood?
SCM make decent panel saws and have a lot of capacity with large sliding tables and a digital display.
More than enough for cross-cutting an 8×4.
Get one of them I’d say.
I'm selling one (minus the digital display, I'm not made of money!) But I can tape an old Nintendo Switch to an anglepoise lamp stand so that it looks the part. Only weighs half a ton too. 🙂
How accurate do the cuts and final dimensions need to be?
How accurate do the cuts and final dimensions need to be?
As a manufacturing engineer this is the bane of my life. Designers that tell me how to do something but not what I need to achieve and then complain when it doesn't work. Are we talking simply snapping a sheet of 5mm in half, or sub-micron parallelism to the other edge.
Will that be Ok for a clean cut?
It will be a damn sight cleaner than anything you will achieve with a dremel
Off course you can cut on the floor with offcuts supporting. you could also try and cut it with a dremel….
Not even the same league fora. Comparison.
Support is support. Placing it in the right places matters more than what the support is made of. Shop bought or otherwise.
However - Is anyone else waiting for a live feed of this plywood being cut with the Dremel ?
Use Dremel with a drill bit and drill a line of holes in a line where you want the sheet to snap when you bend it, then tidy up with your circular saw.
Impressed by Tom outing himself as even more useless than the OP. That takes some doing !
What I take away from this is that you find me impressive, which is as pleasing as it is surprising ❤️
Just mind that whatever you do, we already have a worldclassaccident
Could take the national stripes though.
Forty quid. Pays for itself in the first cut surely.
I've had a circular saw for many years. How I wish track saws were common/a thing as it would be so much better for everything except perhaps cutting railway sleepers at full depth around each side! I'd suggest a track saw would be more useful as a first purchase.
Also love having to move the clamps every five seconds because they get in the way of the motor.
Cuta full length 250mm wide strip of ply as your straight stage, then your clamps are far enough back to be out the way of the saw, and you can also bang self tappers through it.
For supporting sheets the best thing I've found is a sheet or large offcuts of celotex. You can kneel on the work piece without distorting it, and just set the blade a hair deeper than needed and you just get a slight groove in the foam, so it lasts ages and it's still good for insulation later.
Ok, having just built a workshop and had to buy a circular saw and learn how to use it its either
buy a circular saw, its the correct tool and will be for ever useful. Just be careful, they things want to kill you (i am genuinely scared if it)
just use a hand saw, done carefully it will cut straight, cheap and safer than a circular saw
buy a circular saw, its the correct tool and will be for ever useful. Just be careful, they things want to kill you (i am genuinely scared if it)
The correct tool is a track saw.
You’ve put the guide rail on the wrong side!
Here's my excuse: ah but the wide side of the foot is where the motor overhangs, and if trimming just a narrow strip off a sheet, the only material to clamp to is on the same side of the blade as the motor.
I guess the suggestion of cutting a 250mm wide might work though. Then I'd just need a level surface to place the sheet on so that it doesn't sag anywhere, because it's always fun when the cutting guide clamped to the material doesn't sag and the foot of the saw slides beneath it.
So much to go wrong when bodging stuff. Wish I had a track saw for the occasional use I'd use it for.
Most obvious solution would be just to buy two halfs
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Non-Structural-Hardwood-Plywood-Sheet---5-5-x-606-x-1220mm/p/111195
So much to go wrong when bodging stuff. Wish I had a track saw for the occasional use I’d use it for.
Its actually amazing how much you can use it.
Like i've cut rebates for boxes, ploughed slots and cut kerfs for bending skirting boards ( so leaving a mm only at the bottom of the cut.)
Buy one. You won't regret it 😁
Then I’d just need a level surface to place the sheet on
I've got a sheet of ply that folds down from the garage wall and some fold out legs (or trestles would work) to support it. Handily, 1220mm from the ceiling puts it just above knee height so perfect height for working with large sheets as you can lean over/kneel on it to get a good eyeball on your measurements.
It's hinged off a piece of decking with legs to the floor so I can store all those large useful part sheets behind it 🙂
Only pic I can find:
Most obvious solution would be just to buy two halfshttps://www.wickes.co.uk/Non-Structural-Hardwood-Plywood-Sheet—5-5-x-606-x-1220mm/p/111195
You could buy a full sheet for the price of a couple of those!
What 100psi said. I've always used a fresh blade in the stanley knife and the appropriate steel straight edge. Nice deep couple of draws on one side, flip over and do the same on the other side, and it'll do nicely. I've always done my ply cutting on the dining room table, protected with a nice thick sheet of cardboard. Usually 3mm or 4mm, but the same applies to 5.5mm ply. It helps if you can clamp the straight edge.