SVG for calculating kerf

I found a great article that talked about calculating kerf by cutting a whole bunch of pieces, but I don’t have illustrator so I couldn’t open the shared file - I wound up just remaking it as an SVG. Hope this is helpful!

21_03_11_kerf_test

Size should be 5.5" by 1.75". I set the width of the lines for the 20 little bits to the smallest size that would actually show up on the GFUI (.004pt). I did not have to adjust for that size though, I think it just went for whatever the smallest cut it could make was.

Basically the math is:

Total remaining space / total number of pieces = kerf for both sides
Final kerf = kerf for both sides / 2

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You may also like this Easy Kerf Gauges

There have been many discussions and hints regarding kerf. Always room for one more.

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Seconded on those types of gauges, the multiple cuts and them measure method works in theory, but in practice it’s error prone and less reliable than the gauges.

Interesting - any idea why? The slice and dice method worked great on the couple materials I’ve tried it on so far.

You’ll be doing a manual measure with calipers which can be affected by many technique issues, coming in off angle, using too much pressure, even grabbing the wrong part of the cut piece (the cut profile is not square)

If you flip some of the cut pieces they’ll nest more efficiently and that will absolutely affect your measurements.

In the end it comes down to your tolerances, but this is about kerf correction which implies that your tolerances are really low, like for an inlay or complex butt joint. For that, gauges and measurements will pale in comparison to testing.

Gauges are great when you have slots to insert material into, though. It’ll come down to your design and intent.

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Yeah this is where having the numbers burnt onto the slots comes in handy, that way you can see what the intended order is and make sure it’s right-side up.

And for what it’s worth I found it not bad to measure the gap with digital calipers, but I do know when you’re dealing with thousandths of an inch for super-precise joints that may not be as precise. Worked pretty solidly for just making a plywood box with finger joints that didn’t need to be glued though.

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