Guides & Articles
Short, practical guides on cutting, nesting and lumber calculation. Written for the workshop, not the classroom.
Timber & Cutting Glossary: 30 Trade Terms With Units →
7 Ways to Reduce Cutting Waste in Your Workshop
Offcuts add up fast. Seven field-tested habits that cut material costs by 10–20%.
Read the guide →What Is Kerf? Why Every Cut List Needs It
The width of your blade quietly changes every measurement. Here is how to handle it correctly.
Read the guide →Guillotine vs Free Nesting: How Sheet Cutting Really Works
Why every cut should cross the whole sheet — and when free nesting actually wins.
Read the guide →The Material Order Checklist: Before You Buy Steel, Wood or Tile
Ten minutes of checking before the order saves a second trip to the supplier.
Read the guide →Sheet Metal Gauge Chart: Steel, Galvanized, Stainless, Aluminum
mm and inch thickness for every gauge number, why aluminum is not steel, and how to stop ordering the wrong sheet.
Read the guide →Crown Molding Angles: 38°, 45° and 52° Spring Angle Charts
Miter and bevel settings for flat-cutting crown molding — charts for the three standard spring angles and for corners that are not 90°.
Read the guide →Tile Waste Factor: How Much Extra Tile to Order (by Pattern)
Waste percentages for straight, offset, diagonal, herringbone and large-format layouts, plus dye lots and spares — so you buy right the first time.
Read the guide →Glass Cutting: Measure, Score and Reduce Waste
Glass punishes guesswork. Learn how to measure openings, which glass can be cut at all, and how much extra to order.
Read the guide →How to Calculate Board Feet (and Log Scaling Rules)
The board foot is how lumber is bought and sold. The formula takes a minute; the scaling rules and pricing traps take a bit more.
Read the guide →Metal Weight Formula: Steel, Aluminum, Stainless by Profile
Weight drives shipping cost, crane planning and material budgets. One formula covers every metal profile — you only need the density.
Read the guide →Rebar Weight Chart and Bar Bending Schedule Basics
The d²/162 rule turns rebar drawings into kilograms in seconds. Here is how it works, plus how stirrups and bend deductions affect the tonnage.
Read the guide →Feeds and Speeds Basics: RPM and Feed Rate Formulas
Two numbers decide whether a cutter lasts or dies: spindle RPM and feed rate. Both come from one formula pair you can run by hand.
Read the guide →Lumber Weight by Species: Charts, Moisture and Truck Payload
A load of green oak and a load of dry spruce are two different trucks. Species density, moisture content and payload limits — how they add up.
Read the guide →How Many Wallpaper Rolls Do I Need? Pattern Repeat Math
Wallpaper is sold in rolls, hung in drops, and ruined by mismatched patterns. The arithmetic that gets the count right the first time.
Read the guide →Resizing Embroidery Designs: the 15% Density Rule
Why scaling a PES or DST file is not like scaling a photo — what happens to stitch density, and how far you can safely push it.
Read the guide →Baluster Spacing: Code Rules and Equal Layout
The 4-inch sphere rule, how many balusters you really need, and how to mark equal spacing without drift.
Read the guide →How to Estimate Laminate Flooring (With Offcut Reuse)
Rows, stagger, offcut reuse and the waste that actually happens — order planks and boxes like a fitter.
Read the guide →Wood Moisture Content: the Number Behind Every Kiln Schedule
What MC actually means, why it is not the same as water weight, and how to use it for shipping, drying and inventory decisions.
Read the guide →Wood Shrinkage: Tangential, Radial, and Why Boards Cup
How the Wood Handbook 2021 Eq. 4-9 actually behaves, why flat-sawn boards cup, and how to plan stock for the finished size you need.
Read the guide →EMC and Wood Storage: Why Your Lumber Rack Has a Hygrometer
Equilibrium moisture content, the Hailwood-Horrobin sorption curve, and how to keep your stock at the MC you dried it to.
Read the guide →Kiln Capacity, Stickers, and the Wood Fraction of a Charge
How much wood actually fits in a kiln, why stickers are not just spacers, and how to back out the fill factor from a real charge.
Read the guide →Rough Sizing: How Big to Saw Before Kiln and Planer
Combine planing allowance, saw kerf and Wood Handbook shrinkage to size rough stock for a finished dimension.
Read the guide →RPM Formula: How to Calculate Spindle Speed
The RPM formula for milling and turning: n = (Vc × 1000) / (π × d). Worked examples, a quick table and a free calculator.
Read the guide →Cutting Speed Vc: Formula and Reference Table
Cutting speed Vc = π × d × n / 1000 — how fast the edge passes the material, with a worked example and typical values per material.
Read the guide →Saw Feed Rate: How to Calculate Feed Speed
Saw feed rate = bite per tooth × teeth × RPM. How to calculate feed speed for circular and band saws without burning or stalling.
Read the guide →The Cutting Stock Problem, Explained Simply
What the cutting stock problem is, why it is NP-hard, and how 1D and 2D optimizers (guillotine vs true nesting) find good solutions fast.
Read the guide →Wood Density Table: What Every Species Weighs (kg/m³ and lb/ft³)
Density of 18 woods and panels, air-dry, with pounds per cubic foot and kilograms per board foot — the table behind every weight the calculators return.
Read the guide →Firewood Units: Cord, Stere, Raummeter, Festmeter and Loose m³
What each firewood unit actually contains, a conversion table between all five, and what one stere weighs — by species, dry and fresh.
Read the guide →MCP server: 28 free material calculators for AI assistants
The free MCP server for 28 material calculators: cut plans, log scaling, wood drying, container loading — ask your AI in plain language at mcp.nestingcalc.com.
Read the guide →SFM to RPM: The Formula, a Chart and Worked Examples
Convert surface feet per minute to spindle RPM in one step — the 3.82 shortcut, a chart from 1/4 to 4 inches, and where the metric formula differs.
Read the guide →Sawmill Recovery Rate: Benchmarks and How to Improve Yours
Lumber recovery factor benchmarks — around 38% in EU hardwood mills, 48% in softwood, 50% global average — how overrun differs, and the levers that actually raise recovery.
Read the guide →Hoppus Formula Explained: Quarter-Girth Log Measurement
The Hoppus (quarter-girth) formula h = (C/4)² × L/144, why it reads about 78.5% of true volume, Hoppus tons, and worked examples in imperial and metric.
Read the guide →Doyle, Scribner and International Log Rules Compared
How the three classic board-foot log rules differ: the Doyle formula, Scribner Decimal C, International ¼-inch accuracy, their biases on small and large logs, and what overrun really measures.
Read the guide →Green Log Weight: Formula, Species Table and Handling Safety
Green weight = volume × basic density × (1 + MC%): a Wood Handbook species table, worked examples in kg per log, and the handling rules that keep crews safe.
Read the guide →Cube-Out vs Weigh-Out: Which Limit Stops Your Container First?
Balanced density per container — about 1.0 t/m³ in a 20GP, 0.46 in a 40GP, 0.39 in a 40HC — why timber sometimes fills by volume and sometimes by weight, with worked examples.
Read the guide →FBM, Cunit, Stere and Cord: Timber Units That Matter in Trade
Board foot and MBF, the pulp cunit, stere vs solid cubic metre, the firewood cord and Hoppus units — exact conversions through true cubic metres and where each unit is used.
Read the guide →Stowage Factor for Timber Cargo: IMO Ranges and How to Use Them
Stowage factor = m³ per tonne: what it tells you about a ship's hold or container, the IMO CSS Code Table 4.1 ranges for wood cargo, a worked example and timber deck cargo basics.
Read the guide →JAS Log Scaling: The Japanese Agricultural Standard Explained
How JAS scales round logs: the 1 cm / 2 cm diameter rounding rule, V = D² × L ÷ 10,000, the long-log adjustment, the oval-log rule, and why Asia-Pacific plantation trade quotes JAS cubic metres.
Read the guide →Steel Weight Table: kg/m for Round Bar, Tube, Flat Bar and Pipe
Weight per metre of steel round bar 6-100 mm, square hollow sections, flat bar and pipe - with the formula kg/m = 0.00785 x area in mm2 and worked examples.
Read the guide →Manufacturing Yield in Woodworking: From Roundwood to Finished Product
How to chain sawing, drying, machining and finishing yields into one recovery figure, and convert it into roundwood purchases.
Read the guide →How Much Wood Glue Do I Need? Spread Rates, Joints and Cost
Bond-line area times spread rate in g/m²: verified adhesive consumption for edge gluing, panel lay-ups, finger joints and veneer work.
Read the guide →Paint Coverage for Wood Finishing: Solids, DFT and Transfer Efficiency
The technical coverage formula 10 × solids / DFT, why the spray gun eats a third to two thirds of it, and how to plan litres per job.
Read the guide →CBM for Furniture Exports: From Cartons to Container Loads
How to calculate cubic metres for carton lots, why 390 kg/m³ decides cube-out versus weigh-out, and how to plan container counts.
Read the guide →BOM Costing for Furniture: Waste, Cost per Product and Margin
Build a bill of materials that survives contact with the workshop: waste allowances per material class, honest roll-ups, and margin maths that does not underprice.
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