Hello,
Pretty much what the title is asking. How do I cut 3x20 inches from a 12x20 inch MDF board? Thanks in advance.
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if you are wanting a 3 inch strip of the 20 inch board… I think you need to start thinking “right tool for the job”. Table or rotary saw. Otherwise you need to make two passes with the GF and matching them up is going to be tricky at best.
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Thank you, kanati.
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The max cut width is 19.5″ (495 mm), so there’s no simple way to accomplish this. Even with the pass through on a Pro, it would take three cuts. Traditional methods are probably in order.
Good luck and welcome to the community!
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If you have a Pro you can use the pass through slot but it’ll still take two cuts.
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You folks need to start thinking outside the box. They didn’t say it had to be a straight 3”x20”. You could easily fit a snakelike piece, or even an L shaped one, in one go without a passthrough.
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Whew, I was going to make myself late to work figuring that out. Thanks for beating me to it! 
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Good to get the income again for a bit 
Keeps things from getting boring 
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I appreciate the input. Managed to just use the table saw for such. Again, thanks!
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And only a modicum of waste!
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Yes, but if it fits that well you do not need to cut it, and if it is bigger it won’t fit on the tray, If you have a pro however you can align the long side against the crumb tray, and set a vertical line at ten and a half inches long three inches from that edge, then you never change the GFUI settings but just slide the wood along the edge as you would do with a saw, two cute and done.
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Not a bad solution, though I would cut sacrificial material to butt up against. It’s the only way to be dead sure on the position of the left edge. If you set it at 3" it’ll be 3+ margin width, which varies.
I’d also use boots to keep the tray from moving.
Or just do it with the diagonal. It uses more material but it’s way faster. If I am using MDF, it’s literally pennies of material versus job setup and fiddling. I’d just save the time and spend the pennies, you know?
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There is only one cut that is three inches from the edge. Nothing to sacrifice. the boots might help but I have never found enough error to call for them. If I happen to have some 19x48 inch material and need that much I could cut it 6 at a time! 
(with a pro of course)
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Yes but that’s the tough part.
The edge of the crumb tray is not the edge of the cutting area. Hence a sacrificial cut of cardboard at 0.5" from the edge, and then the real cut line at 3.5". You cut your cardboard, then slide the wood up against it. Turn off the 05." cut, and turn on the 3.5" cut.
Your tolerances might be higher than mine then. That tray had way too much wiggle. You want exactly 20x3" then this is how you do it. Heck, if I were doing it your way I would use boots, and kerf correct and do verticals at 0.5" and 3.494" but I didn’t feel like writing it all out. Yet here we are.
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, I would measure the first three inches or keep an exact record from a small test ruler and hit the three-inch mark from the edge no matter, though the 20" length would be easier starting with the cut limits, The 20" marks can be marked with a pencil and while I can deliberately move the tray a millimeter or so, I can also keep it at a known location that I can repeat any time, If I had blocks to hold it there I would probably use them but I haven’t found the need.
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Me neither.
This is the “repeatability” of mine. This is two prints, with the machine powered off, tray removed (and material removed from tray) in between. Always been this way, and the reason I know this is that I was using a “ruler”/guide cut from a whole piece of PG well before we had any precision alignment in the UI. The Tray seats solidly against front of machine and has no wiggle at all, and PG-sized material (that includes Purebond from THD) seats tightly against lips on tray.
Not trying to “prove anyone wrong” but - at least in my experience - the machine, tray position, material location, are all extremely accurate and repeatable.
So for the OP, cutting along the edge as rbtdanforth stated would work perfectly. I cut four, 3" wide, 24" long strips from MDF long before the official passthru function (but obviously using the slots) was available. Worked perfectly.
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