How many boards do I need for a cut list?

Work out how many lengths of lumber, pipe or extrusion to buy, including the kerf that total length leaves out.

Adding up the lengths of your pieces and dividing by the board length gives the fewest boards you could need. To get the true number, work out how many pieces fit on one board with the blade’s kerf between them, then plan each board.

An example

You need six pieces 32″ long, cut from 96″ (8-foot) boards with a 1/8″ blade. The pieces total 192″, exactly two boards. But three pieces on one board need two cuts between them, and 32 + 1/8 + 32 + 1/8 + 32 is 96 1/4″, a quarter inch longer than the board. Only two fit per board, so you need three boards, each leaving a 31 3/4″ drop.

Mixed lengths

With pieces of different lengths, the question becomes which pieces go on which board, and the number of combinations grows quickly. Putting the longest pieces first and filling each board’s remainder with the longest piece that still fits is a good manual method, but it does not always find the fewest boards.

Doing it with NestSmart

Enter your stock lengths and the pieces you need, set the kerf, and run the job. NestSmart charges kerf after each cut, except where the drop is already narrower than the blade, and shows every board with its pieces and its drop. Choose Fewest stock pieces to minimize boards bought, or Least waste to keep the longest usable offcuts. Measure the stock you actually have: boards sold as 8 feet are not always exactly 96″.