Cutting full 122x244 sheet on half-sheet table

[americainperdu1 (Shaun)]

Hey everyone, have been lurking for a while and wanted to build my own LowRider CNC. Years ago I started to build an MPCNC but moved overseas, so I just have all those parts in a box.

I am primarily making cabinets/built-ins but wouldn’t mind using a CNC to make a couple of small pieces of furniture (chairs, etc). I am fairly limited when it comes to space, and couldn’t make a machine that cuts an entire sheet of plywood as it will take up my entire shed.

I am wondering if someone has halved the long size of a sheet of plywood (250 cm → 125cm), so a table of 125 x 122cm, and left the “short” side open so that a full sheet can be cut upon if that becomes necessary? And then is cutting on one piece of material in two jobs something that software can handle or is it a bit more of a manual process?

Thank you for any help, I am not sure what the term is for what I am trying to accomplish which makes it hard to find topics on it.

[Dreyfus]

It’s definitely achievable - mostly a manual process but not too difficult. Basically you include registration pegs that let you move the piece a precise amount so you can continue where you left off.

Check out this video by another member here on their process

Cutting Strut Plates, flipping the workpiece

This video is not dealing with how to create the toolpath, just with the machining part of the process (though the toolpaths should be obvious after watching it): [LR4 - How to cut an overlong worpiece on a CNC using dowels]

[barry99705 (Barry)]

My half sheet v3 build wasn’t quite big enough to cut the plates, did the registration peg trick, worked great.