Enter Your Cuts
List every piece you need with its length and quantity. Add optional labels like "shelf" or "rail" for easy tracking.
100% Client-Side · Your Cut List Never Leaves
A cut list optimizer calculates the minimum number of stock boards you need by packing your project's cut pieces using a First Fit Decreasing algorithm. It accounts for blade kerf waste to prevent short cuts and outputs visual board diagrams showing exactly where to mark and cut each board.
Stock & Cut Settings
Standard: 1/8" (0.125)
Cut List
Add each piece you need label, length, and quantity.
Label
Length (in)
Qty
Optimized Layout
Boards Required
Total Waste
Efficiency
Total Cuts
Kerf Loss
Est. Cost
Board Layout
Add your cut list and hit Optimize to see the layout.
How It Works
Set Your Stock
Choose your stock board length and blade kerf the sawdust the blade removes per cut. Kerf matters for accuracy.
Smart Optimization
Our First Fit Decreasing algorithm packs your cuts to minimize the number of boards you need to buy.
See the Layout
Color-coded SVG diagrams show exactly where to mark and cut each board like looking down at your workbench.
Woodworking Efficiency Gear
A great cut list is only as good as the measurements you take in the shop. To guarantee perfect cuts without squinting at tape measures, upgrade to a digital miter saw fence stop system. It locks your cuts to the exact decimal you calculated here. For breaking down sheet goods and long boards before they hit the miter saw, a premium track saw is essential for achieving table-saw-quality straight edges with zero tear-out.
Why Do You Need a Cut List Optimizer?
When building a woodworking project, manually planning how to cut down 8-foot or 12-foot stock boards is incredibly tedious and often results in expensive waste. A 1D Cut List Optimizer uses a bin-packing algorithm (specifically First Fit Decreasing) to automatically group your project's pieces in a way that minimizes the total number of stock boards you need to buy. LumberLogic takes this a step further by calculating blade kerf lossthe thickness of the wood turned into sawdust with every pass of the blade. Ignoring kerf can ruin your final cuts, leaving your last piece too short. By visualizing your optimized board layouts, you save money at the lumber yard and eliminate guesswork at the miter saw.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a cut list optimizer reduce lumber waste?
A cut list optimizer uses the First Fit Decreasing (FFD) bin-packing algorithm to sort your cuts from longest to shortest, then packs them into stock boards to minimize the total boards you need to buy. It accounts for blade kerf — the 1/8" of wood lost to sawdust per cut — to prevent your final piece from coming up short.
What is blade kerf and why does it matter?
Blade kerf is the width of material removed by the saw blade during each cut, typically 1/8" (0.125") for a standard table saw or miter saw blade. Over multiple cuts on a single board, kerf loss accumulates. Ignoring it can leave your last piece too short by a quarter inch or more.
Can I use this for plywood sheet goods?
This optimizer handles 1-dimensional (linear) cuts — boards, lumber, trim, pipes, and rebar. For 2D sheet optimization (plywood, MDF panels), you need a 2D nesting optimizer that accounts for both width and length simultaneously.
How accurate is the First Fit Decreasing algorithm?
FFD is a well-studied approximation algorithm that typically achieves within 10-15% of the mathematically optimal solution. For practical woodworking projects with fewer than 50 cuts, it almost always finds the optimal or near-optimal packing.