How To Square A Sheet Of Plywood

Place the framing square with the short leg flush with the sheet s edge and the long leg against the mark.

How to square a sheet of plywood.

15 32 cat ps1 09 square structural douglas fir sheathing application as 4 x 8. Plywood is a popular choice for residential and light duty construction and is made from thin sheets of veneer that have been peeled from debarked wood. A string or a chalkline makes a ready reference for checking the straightness of a sheet of plywood. Add an additional 10 for waste and mistakes.

Now that s how to easily rip cut a plywood sheet but what about cross cuts. Not all plywood is exactly 4 wide. Mark the location of the square s center on the wood sheet with a pencil. If your plywood is moving while you are cutting clamp it onto your saw horses where it won t be in the way of your cutting.

Item 12190 model 154783154783. Divide the roof s area by 32 32 is the total area of one sheet of plywood to find this figure. Divide by the total square footage by the square footage of a sheet of plywood to find the number of sheets required to cover the space. For example if the area to be covered in plywood is 800 ft 2 then 25 sheets of plywood will be needed to cover it.

These thin layers also called plies are glued together in alternating perpendicular directions to create a cross graining pattern. For example if your roof is 3 000 square feet divide 3 000 by 32. If the diagonal measures 5 at the 3 mark of a 4 wide sheet of plywood then the corner is square. Again you could swap step 3 and 4 but i usually rip first then cross cut second.

This pattern results in added strength and stability that resists shrinkage and expansion. When cutting down i can get two sides parallel with no problem but have difficulty getting two adjacent sides square. The t square i got from the big box is worst than the sheet of plywood. I bought two sheets of 3 4 inch birch plywood and soon discovered they were not square.

A 4 8 sheet of plywood is 32 ft 2. This video is a introduction to a short series about testing my panel cutting method with the 5 cut method. 800 32 25 sheets.