Warning: I was cutting all my plywood with the good face down for years...

I was making a set of kitchen cabinets for a client in Springfield and kept getting tear-out on the top edges. My helper finally asked why I didn't just flip the sheet over before cutting. I'd been putting the factory-finished side against the table saw surface, thinking it was safer... but that meant the blade was exiting through the good face. I lost about $200 in material on that job alone from the damage. Now I always double-check the blade path. Has anyone else had a basic setup habit that was actually backwards?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_hart187d agoTop Commenter

Feel your pain lol. I started marking the good side with a big X in pencil before any cut, saves my dumb brain every time.

cameroncarr7d ago

Actually, @tessa_hart18, I mark the bad side with an X so I don't cut into it by mistake.