O/T - Cutting thin Plywood

yendor, Feb 19, 4:12pm
I have some thin Caravan plywood, about 2.7mm thick with a white textured coating on one side. How do I cut it without it splintering or damaging the white finish!.

jmma, Feb 19, 4:16pm
upside down if cutting with skill or jigsaw

lugee, Feb 19, 4:17pm
Tape on cut line. Use a fine tooth cutting tool and cut towards the textured side.

_peas, Feb 19, 4:31pm
If you use a jigsaw make sure that the oscillation of the blade is set at 0.It is slower to cut but leaves a finer finish. 3mm ply wouldn't take long anyway.

mercbens, Feb 19, 4:47pm
x1
There is only ONE way to cut thin ply without splintering - use a Stanley (Box cutter) knife. Use a metal straight edge and cut firmly. It will cut " clean as a whistle" . Cut from the textured side. -Watch out for your fingers. -
Make sure that the blade is sharp, break off the leading edge and start with a fresh edge.
I was given this tip by a caravan cabinet maker and have used it sucessfully myself.

afer_daily, Feb 19, 5:14pm
with ply that thin you could cut it with a craft/stanley knife. / on a hard surface of course !

yendor, Feb 19, 6:23pm
Will give a Stanley knife a go. Thanks.

hutchk, Feb 20, 7:29am
Use a chainsaw (carefully).

rob_man, Feb 20, 8:51am
Axe.

sleuth, Feb 20, 2:43pm
Depends on how much you need to do. A small router or laminate trimmer will make a perfect cut.

richynuts, Feb 20, 5:14pm
NO when you remove tape this will often cause the coating to lift, I used to restore caravans and just used a box cutter knife or router with bearing on cutter and trimmed around doors wiindows etc after glued in place or lay plywood down on floor with coversheet underneath and used a straightedge with router against it use 5mm router cutter just just enough to cut through, though most times I just used the sawbench if plywood fitted into a alloy chanel.

noswalg, Feb 20, 8:39pm
ha ha i cut everything with my chainsaw. I really do need to get a circular saw!

petermcg, May 10, 11:16pm
And when you want to do the same with a thicker sheet of laminate, you can use a fine hand saw and cut slowly at a very low angle.