Why saw kerf matters
Kerf is the material your blade removes. Two 48-inch pieces cannot come from an exact 96-inch board with a 1/8-inch cut between them. Measure your blade's actual cut width and check your stock before buying or cutting.
LUMBER + PLYWOOD
Free lumber & plywood
cut list optimizer
One job. Every cut. Plan your materials, compare costs, and print your cutting layouts.
How to use the cut plannerSettings
Fraction displays round to 1/64 inch. Switching formats preserves the stored measurement.
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Job materials
Add another job material
Finished entering this material? Add the next one here.
My stock
Stock matches the material name exactly. Include thickness, species, or grade when they differ.
COMPLETE JOB
Your order and cut list
Order list
Cut list
Whole-job lumber search and guillotine sheet layouts include blade kerf. Search is bounded and does not guarantee the absolute minimum. Confirm actual supplier dimensions and allow for end trimming or defects before cutting.
FROM MATERIAL LIST TO CUT LIST
How to plan lumber and plywood cuts
TradeQuote Cut Planner is a free woodworking calculator from Hands Built Software. Combine lumber and plywood in one job, then get a material order list and measured cutting layouts. No account is required.
- Add your materials. Keep different sizes, species, grades, and plywood thicknesses separate. Enter each finished cut size once and use quantity for repeated pieces.
- Choose your stock. Compare 8, 10, 12, and 16 ft lumber or add available lengths. For plywood, enter the sheet dimensions and choose a common thickness or a custom material.
- Set kerf and your buying preference. Enter the width removed by your saw blade. Compare waste across all available lumber lengths, use one stock length, or compare costs across up to four selected lengths with your supplier prices.
- Generate the complete job. Review the order list, grouped cuts, and board or sheet diagrams. Print or save a PDF for the shop, or export a CSV.
Cover a long plywood run evenly
Need to cover 108 inches using 96-inch sheets? Enable “Split long runs into equal pieces” to plan two 54-inch pieces per run when the width fits. The pieces meet at butt joints; plan the support and joint locations for your project.
Check plywood allowance
The optional sheet allowance assumes one extra kerf in both sheet width and length. Use it only when your measured sheet has that extra usable material. Turn it off for exact-size sheets. Kerf between pieces still counts.
Choose units and reuse offcuts
Settings support fractional inches, feet and fractional inches, decimal inches or feet, and metric measurements. Stock length choices stay in feet. Save usable offcuts to My stock and set your own minimum size to keep.
Jobs and stock are saved in this browser at this website address. Use Download backup and Import backup to move work between devices or from the old website address. Optimization searches are bounded; layouts do not guarantee the absolute lowest waste or cost.
Privacy & saved data
Your jobs, settings, cut progress, and stock are stored in this browser. The planner has no cloud account or cloud job sync. Clearing browser data can remove saved work; use Download backup to keep a copy.
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