How many pieces can I cut from a board?
Five 16" pieces from an 8-foot board, not the six the arithmetic promises. Every cut destroys a blade's width of wood — what that costs, and how to count it.
An 8' board yields 5 pieces at 16", not 6.
96" ÷ 16" is exactly 6 — but 6 pieces need 5 cuts between them, and 5 × 1/8" of blade is wood the board does not have. You get 5, with 15 1/2" left.
How that is worked out
- Every cut between two pieces destroys a blade's width, so 6 pieces would need 5 cuts and 5/8" of blade on top of the wood itself.
- 6 × 16" + 5/8" = 96 5/8", which is more than the 96" you have. So 6 is out.
- 5 pieces need only 4 cuts: 80 1/2" used, 15 1/2" left. That is the whole reason a cut list that divides exactly on paper comes up one piece short at the saw.
Pieces from a 8' board, by piece length and blade
| Piece length | 1/32" | 1/16" | 3/32" | 1/8" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12" | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 15 15/16" | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| 16" | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 18" | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 24" | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 32" | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Worth knowing
- The row to look at is 15 15/16": six pieces on a thin or track-saw kerf and five once the kerf reaches 3/32" or more, from the same board. That is the whole point of counting the kerf rather than dividing.
- The first cut usually does not count against you, because you are trimming a ragged end anyway. The cuts between pieces always do.
- Cut the longest pieces first. An offcut long enough for a short piece is still useful; a pile of short offcuts cannot become a long piece.
- None of this allows for defects. Real boards have splits, knots and a crooked end, and a cut list that assumes clear stock end to end is a cut list that comes up short.
Work out your own numbers
- Board cut calculator
How many pieces of one length come out of a board of another, with the kerf charged between cuts and the leftover shown.
- Cut list optimizer
Lay your parts out on a sheet of plywood and get the cuts in order. Accounts for blade kerf and keeps the grain running the right way.
- Sheet layout calculator
How many same-size panels fit on a sheet of plywood in a plain grid, turned 90° if that fits more.
Related questions
- How much wood does a saw blade take?
- About 1/8" for a standard table saw blade, 3/32" for a thin-kerf one, 1/16" or less for a track saw, and as little as 1/32" on a bandsaw. It sounds trivial until you are making a dozen cuts in one board — a dozen 1/8" kerfs is an inch and a half of wood gone.
- How many 16 inch pieces can I get from an 8 foot board?
- Five, not six. 96 ÷ 16 = 6 exactly, but the five cuts between six pieces take 5/8" of wood with a standard blade, and the board does not have it to give. This is the single most common cut-list mistake.
- Does the kerf matter on a cut list?
- On anything with several pieces from one board or sheet, yes, and it compounds. A sheet cut into a dozen parts loses well over an inch to the blade, which is the difference between the last part fitting and a second sheet. The cut list optimizer accounts for it on every cut.