Guides
Short, friendly answers for cutting plywood furniture on a CNC router. New here? Start with the first guide, then pick the topic you need.
Best plywood for CNC furniture: what to buy and what to avoid
How to choose plywood for CNC furniture: Baltic birch, hardwood plywood and sanded pine compared by flatness, voids, thickness and finish.
Read the guide →Plywood thickness for CNC furniture: why 3/4" isn't 3/4"
Plywood is often thinner than its label. How to measure it, why it breaks CNC joints and how to set the real thickness in your files.
Read the guide →The best CNC bit for plywood furniture
Which CNC router bit to use for plywood furniture: compression, up-cut and down-cut bits compared, with tips for clean edges and tight corners.
Read the guide →How to hold plywood down on a CNC router
Ways to hold plywood sheets and parts on a CNC router: screws, brad nails, vacuum, tape and tabs, and the order of cuts that keeps parts from moving.
Read the guide →How to stop tear-out when cutting plywood on a CNC
Why plywood splinters and chips on a CNC router and how to fix it: sharp compression bits, the right feed, good hold-down and clean final passes.
Read the guide →How to nest furniture parts on a 4 × 8 ft plywood sheet
How nesting works, what spacing and margins to leave around parts, when to rotate them and how to read the sheet layouts in your plans.
Read the guide →How to run a plywood fit test before cutting the whole project
A five-minute test in a scrap of your plywood tells you which clearance gives a snug joint. Step by step, with a free DXF test piece to download.
Read the guide →Dog-bones for plywood furniture
A round router bit cannot cut a sharp inside corner. Dog-bones are small relief cuts that let a square part seat fully. How they work and how to size them.
Read the guide →Through-tenon vs half-lap joints in plywood furniture
Two joints that need no hardware. How half-laps and through tenons work in plywood, where each one fits and how CNC cutting changes the details.
Read the guide →How thick should plywood shelves be?
Why shelves sag, how length and thickness change it, and how to choose a thickness for your load. With a free shelf sag calculator.
Read the guide →How much does it cost to build furniture with a CNC?
Work out the real cost of a CNC plywood furniture project, with US shop rates around $45 an hour, sheets, bits, finish, hardware and a worked example.
Read the guide →How to finish and assemble CNC plywood furniture
Assemble and finish CNC plywood furniture: dry fit, sanding, gluing square, edge finishing and clear coats that look good on birch and maple.
Read the guide →How to measure your laser's kerf for press-fit joints
Cut a 20 mm square, measure it and subtract: that is your kerf. Enter it once in any laser plan and the joints press-fit, step by step.
Read the guide →The best plywood and MDF for laser cutting
Baltic birch, basswood plywood or MDF: which 1/8" sheet to buy for boxes, lamps and decor, what to check before buying and how to clean the edge.
Read the guide →How to open the SVG in LightBurn, xTool and Glowforge
How to import the SVG of a plywood plan into LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge, and set power and speed for the red cuts and blue engraving.
Read the guide →Looking for a calculator? Try the free tools.