Panel Saw Cut List Generator

Guillotine cutting: every cut starts at one edge and ends at the opposite edge of the current piece. Make a cut across a 4×8 sheet, you get two rectangles. Cut one of those rectangles in two, repeat. Every cut produces clean rectangular sub-pieces.

Free-arrangement (also called "best-fit" or "non-guillotine"): parts can be arranged anywhere on the sheet, with cuts that start in the middle of a piece. This gives the best material utilization mathematically — but it can only be cut on a CNC router or by hand with a track saw.

A vertical panel saw (Striebig, Safety Speed Cut, Holzher) can only cut guillotine. A horizontal sliding table saw can do limited non-guillotine cuts but it's awkward. Set EZNESTING's optimizer to guillotine mode for any panel saw workflow.

One 4×8 sheet of 3/4" plywood, broken down for two base cabinets:

• 4 sides @ 23" × 30"
• 2 bottoms @ 22½" × 23"

In guillotine mode with a ⅛" kerf, all six parts fit on one sheet at 82.4% yield. The layout is two columns:

1. Rip the sheet at 23" along its length. That gives a 23" × 96" strip and a 24⅞" × 96" strip.
2. Crosscut the 23" strip at 30" three times. That's three sides, plus a 5¾" drop.
3. Crosscut the 24⅞" strip into one 30" piece and two 23" pieces. Rip the 30" piece to 23" for the fourth side, and rip the two 23" pieces to 22½" for the bottoms.

Every cut runs edge to edge of the piece on the saw, so the operator never has to start a cut mid-panel. The two backs (23" × 29½") won't fit in what's left. Add them and the job needs a second sheet: 2 sheets at 55.9% yield, with most of sheet two left as offcut for the next job. The calculator above is pre-filled with the six-part version.

For a vertical panel saw, the longest cuts come first. Here's why: long cuts use the full crosscut capacity of the saw. Once you've broken the sheet into smaller pieces, those pieces fit comfortably on the saw for shorter cuts.

The reverse order (short cuts first) means you'd be cutting full sheets into small pieces, which still works but uses awkward saw positions and risks the small pieces falling off the table.

EZNESTING orders cuts left-to-right, top-to-bottom within each sheet, with longest cuts first. Hand the printout to your operator and they can work through it without re-thinking the strategy.

A free-arrangement optimizer might give you 94% utilization. A guillotine optimizer on the same parts gives 88%. That 6% extra material sounds like waste.

It's not — it's the price of being able to cut the layout on the equipment you have. The "94% nest" can't be executed on a panel saw. You'd have to buy a CNC router (six-figure investment) to use that utilization.

For a small shop running a Striebig or similar, the trade is real: slightly higher material cost, much lower equipment cost. The CNC math only works at high cabinet volumes.

Crossover point is roughly 15-30 cabinet boxes/week, depending on your panel saw operator's hourly cost and the value of better material utilization.

• < 15 boxes/week: panel saw is fine. Use guillotine optimization.
• 15-30 boxes/week: investment math gets murky. Depends on whether your operator is full-time on the saw or splitting time.
• > 30 boxes/week: CNC router pays back inside 18 months on material savings + operator productivity. Switch to the CNC router nest optimizer and free-arrangement mode.

Even shops with CNC routers often keep a panel saw for rough breakdown of full sheets — the guillotine cut list stays relevant.