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Cutting Plywood and Breaking Down Sheet Goods

Cutting plywood and breaking down sheet goods is easy…

When you have the right tools.

Sure, you could politely ask the nice people at the home store to do it.

But c’mon, this is an excuse to whip out your circular saw and go to town.

A DIY friend showed me Kreg’s Rip-Cut tool with a circular saw and I fell in love.

Today I’ll show you how to use it to cut plywood into any dimension you want.

And yes, there’s a sweet giveaway my friend!!

My predicament: I needed to cut a 13 inch by 8 foot piece of plywood.

It was for the bathroom mockup project (I’m building a bathroom from scratch and documenting it!)

The subfloor is made of 3/4″ tongue and groove plywood.

Bathroom Mockup

You probably have the same subfloor in your home, well at least I hope you do 😀

Plywood is heavy stuff, it weighs like 2,000 pounds per sheet.

Just kidding, but a single person really has to manhandle the stuff to move it around.

Here’s the point, if you think you’re going to use a table saw by yourself to cut plywood…think again.

An easier way to make your cuts is to lay the plywood on 2 x 4s that rest on a flat surface.

Lay Plywood on 2 x 4s

Then use your circular saw to cut the plywood.

You could snap a chalkline on the wood and try to cut it free hand.

It’s likely the cut will look a bit wonky.

Not good if you need a nice straight cut.

You could also clamp a straight edge to the plywood and run the saw against it.

However, it’s hard to consistently apply pressure to the straight edge while concentrating on the saw blade that’s spinning at several 1000 RPM.

I like my fingers, you know what I mean, LOL.

This is where the Kreg Rip-Cut tool comes in handy.

Rip Cut in Action

You attach it to your circular saw and it’s edge guide allows you to cut plywood into perfectly straight sections.

In fact, you can cut a 4 x 8 foot sheet of plywood in half without making any marks on it.

Plus, you can swap the edge guide to either side of the Rip-Cut which means if you’re lefty you can use, too.

And the Rip Cut is way cheaper than a table saw, $34 versus $300,

No contest.

Watch my video tutorial to get more plywood cutting tips and see the Rip-Cut in action

Cutting Plywood and Breaking Down Sheet Goods

What’s Next

If you’d like to buy the Rip-Cut click here to get it on Amazon.

If you’re doing a bathroom remodel and need help, join one of our online courses – they’ll make your bathroom renovation much easier!

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to help.

Thanks as always for reading, watching, and being part of our awesome community.

Cheers,

Jeff

Cutting Plywood