: I've wondered if starting out with a good quality plywood and having the
: supplier cut two good strips from each eight foot side wouldn't be a good
: way to start, thus taking advantage of a total of sixteen feet of
: manufactured edge and the great big saw of the supplier (Lowes in my
: case).

That great big saw, you may notice, is not a table saw. In the past few weeks I had to rip some 4x8 sheets of particle board for new sides for my trailer. I never gave a thought to using a table saw for the job. It was just so much faster and easier to use a circular saw.

I'm not real fond of handling anything bigger than a quarter sheet of plywood on a table saw, so when I have a full sheet of plywood, and only need a portion of it, I cut it down to size with a circular saw. Same goes for ripping long lengths of plywood or particle board. The saw weighs about 9 pounds, the sheets of particle board were about 40 pounds each. I chose to lift the lightest weight. Guess I'm just naturally lazy.

I dropped a sheet of my particle board on top of a 4 scrap 2x4s I had arranged on the driveway. Two were under the piece I wanted, and two were under the rest of the panel. I measured the piece I wanted to cut, and marked that on the panel with a pencil. Then I got another panel of particle board and dropped that over the whole setup. I used the saw as a guide, and arranged the second panel so it was the exact distance of the blade kerf and the base of the saw from the line I wanted to cut.

I used the "factory edge" from that second panel as a nice straight cutting guide. 2 clamps held it in place. After I had ripped one slice off of the first panel I took that piece and used it for my guide. It had the original "factory edge" on one side, and it was a lot smaller and lighter than using an entire panel for a guide.

Normally I don't have to do all this jockeying around. At my house I have a guide for my circular saw which I can jsut lay on the cutting marks and clamp down. But this time I was away from home and using someone else's tools--and they didn't have a cutting guide. So I improvised. I think I'll make a cuttign guide for my friend, as a reapyment for them letting me use their saw. it is a simple job, and actually is very close to the precedure as I just mentioned. The difference is that I use 1/4 inch plywood.

For a straightedge/cutting guide I start by freehand cutting a piece about 10 to 12 inches wide from a 4x8 panel of 1/4 icnh plywood. The exact width doesn't matter, but it should be 2 to 3 inches wider than the width of the saw. I take this piece and place it on top of the remaining plywood. The piece is turned so the two rough edges I just made overlap as close as I can get them to. I use glue and brads (or staples) to connect these two parts. Once the glue is hard, I pull the brads or staples, I run the saw along the factory edge of the upper piece. This cuts off my guide from the remainder of the panel. One side of the guide is now a straight edge which is exactly the right distance from the guide edge. When I make cuts with the circular saw I clamp that along the line I want, and it cuts along that line. When I'm cutting plywood with a nice veneer I clamp the guide in place, and run a sharp knife along the straight edge. That scores the plywood veneer in exactly the right place so it doesn't chip when I cut my pieces.

Hope this helps

PGJ