How many cuts from a 2440x1220 sheet of 18mm MDF? Bedside cabinet worked example

A standard 2440 × 1220 mm sheet of 18 mm MDF gives you all six parts for a bedside cabinet with roughly 70% of the sheet still intact as usable offcut. The cabinet in this example is 500 mm tall, 400 mm wide and 350 mm deep: a practical beside-the-bed size that works equally well as a small bathroom cabinet or a printer stand. The calculation below shows every part, its finished size, and exactly where it lands on the sheet.

Why MDF for this project?

MDF machines cleanly, holds paint without grain showing through, and its edges take a filled finish easily. For a painted cabinet that will live indoors, it is often the right choice. The trade-off is weight: an 18 mm MDF sheet weighs around 44 kg, making it hard to handle alone, and 18 mm MDF is not happy getting wet. Keep it dry and it will last for decades.

If your project will see damp (a bathroom, a utility room, a garage), use moisture-resistant (MR) MDF or switch to birch plywood. The sheet size and all the dimensions below stay the same; only the material changes.

The example cabinet

Overall outside dimensions: 500 mm tall, 400 mm wide, 350 mm deep. Construction is a straightforward butt-jointed box: two full-height sides, a top and bottom fitting between the sides, one mid-height shelf, and a back panel.

The sides run the full height (500 mm) and full depth (350 mm). The top, bottom and shelf fit between the sides, so their width is the overall width minus two panel thicknesses: 400 minus 2 × 18 = 364 mm. The shelf is set 18 mm shallower than the sides to leave a channel for the back panel at the rear: 350 minus 18 = 332 mm deep. The back panel fills the opening inside the top, bottom and sides: 464 mm tall (500 minus 2 × 18) by 364 mm wide.

Parts list

Six parts total. All from 18 mm MDF.

How all six parts fit on one sheet

The sheet is 2440 mm long and 1220 mm wide. A 3 mm saw kerf is assumed throughout. The nesting below works left-to-right, starting from the left end of the sheet.

Zone A: the two sides (left end of the sheet, L 0 to 500 mm)

• Side 1: placed at the left end of the sheet, 500 mm along the length, 350 mm across the width (occupying width 0 to 350 mm).
• Side 2: placed alongside, 500 mm along the length, from width 353 mm to 703 mm (350 mm + 3 mm kerf gap).
• Shelf: the remaining strip in this left zone runs from width 706 mm to 1038 mm (332 mm, with a 3 mm kerf at 703 mm). The shelf is 364 mm long and 332 mm wide, placed at length 0 to 364 mm within this strip. It fits comfortably.

Zone A uses the left 500 mm of the sheet for the sides and shelf, leaving 1940 mm of unused length.

Zone B: back panel, top and bottom (starting at L 503 mm)

• Back panel: 464 mm long, 364 mm wide. Placed from length 503 mm (3 mm kerf after the sides) to 967 mm, width 0 to 364 mm.
• Top: 364 mm long, 350 mm wide. Placed from length 503 mm to 867 mm, width 367 mm to 717 mm (3 mm kerf after the back).
• Bottom: 364 mm long, 350 mm wide. Placed from length 503 mm to 867 mm, width 720 mm to 1070 mm.

All six parts sit within a 967 × 1070 mm area at the left end of the sheet. The remainder, from length 967 mm to 2440 mm, is a single offcut measuring 1473 × 1220 mm: just over half a sheet, usable for a second project or stored flat for future cuts.

Area check

Adding up the face area of all six parts:

• 2 sides: 2 × (500 × 350) = 350,000 mm²
• Top: 364 × 350 = 127,400 mm²
• Bottom: 364 × 350 = 127,400 mm²
• Shelf: 364 × 332 = 120,848 mm²
• Back: 464 × 364 = 168,896 mm²
• Total: 894,544 mm²

One sheet: 2440 × 1220 = 2,976,800 mm². Sheet utilisation: 30%. The remaining 70% (2,082,256 mm²) comes off as usable offcut. This is normal for a small cabinet from a full sheet: the sheet is sized for larger projects, and anything that fits inside a 1 × 1 m space will leave a substantial offcut.

Sequence of cuts

The most efficient sequence for a table saw or track saw:

1. Rip the sheet into three strips along the length: width 0 to 703 mm (the sides strip), 706 to 1038 mm (the shelf strip), and 1041 to 1220 mm (offcut). This turns the full sheet into three manageable panels.
2. From the 703 mm wide sides strip: cross-cut at 500 mm to separate the two sides from the remainder. The remainder of this strip (1940 × 703 mm) is the main offcut.
3. From the 332 mm wide shelf strip: cross-cut at 364 mm for the shelf, leaving a 2076 mm offcut.
4. From the remaining sheet (the large 1940 × 1220 mm area): rip to 364 mm width for the back panel, top and bottom. Cross-cut at 464 mm for the back, then 364 mm twice for the top and bottom.

Total cuts: approximately 7 to 9 depending on how you sequence. A track saw will let you make the rips on the floor before carrying panels to a workbench for the cross-cuts.

Scaling up: what if the cabinet is a different size?

The one-sheet answer holds as long as the cabinet is not wider than about 550 mm and not taller than about 900 mm. Once a side panel exceeds the sheet width (1220 mm for a cabinet taller than 1220 mm), you need to plan panel joins or move to a taller sheet.

UK sheet sizes

The standard UK sheet is 2440 × 1220 mm, the metric equivalent of the 8 × 4 ft sheet used in North America. This guide uses that size throughout. Some merchants (Wickes, B&Q, Travis Perkins) also stock 2440 × 1200 mm sheets in some thicknesses; a 20 mm narrower sheet makes almost no difference to this cut list, as the parts only use up to 1070 mm of the 1220 mm width.

For US readers: 4 × 8 ft is 1219 × 2438 mm, near enough to work with these dimensions without any adjustment.

Plan your own cut list

If your cabinet is a different size, the method is the same: list every part with its finished dimensions, account for the 18 mm MDF thickness wherever panels meet, then arrange the parts on the sheet and count how many sheets you need.

SawReady does the nesting and sheet-count arithmetic automatically. Enter your parts, set 2440 × 1220 mm as the sheet and 3 mm as the kerf, and it will show the most efficient layout and confirm the sheet count before you buy.

Plan my MDF cuts