MaterioCutting a furniture board with less waste
How many boards to buy for a list of parts, and how to lay them out so the off-cut is as small as possible. The saw's kerf takes material too.
Step by step
- List the parts: width, length and quantity. Add an allowance for edging if the edge band goes on after cutting.
- Give the board format and the saw kerf. A panel saw takes about 3–4 mm on every cut; over a few dozen cuts that is whole centimetres.
- Decide whether parts may be rotated. A board with a grain or a pattern cannot be, and the waste grows — calculate both and compare.
Calculators used in this guide
Tip
The result is a cutting plan, not an order. Before you order, check that every part fits the way the algorithm turned it — with a grain, rotating a part changes how the front looks even when the dimensions are right.
The same formula in the app Materio for Android uses the same engine offline — with the material catalogue and results saved into a project. Download