Router table cabinet cut list: plywood parts, dimensions and how they nest onto a sheet

A router table cabinet built as a simple open-front box, 600 mm (about 24 in) wide, 720 mm (about 28 in) tall and 500 mm (about 20 in) deep, needs six panels of 18 mm plywood: two sides, a top, a bottom, one fixed shelf, and a back. The full parts list, how the six panels nest onto one sheet, and what else to buy are all below.

This cabinet is the base the router table top sits on, not the top itself. Keeping it as a plain box with an open front means easy access to the router from below for bit changes and height adjustment, and the fixed shelf splits the inside into two bins for bits, push sticks, and the router's dust port hose.

The example cabinet

This guide uses a mid-size cabinet: 600 mm wide, 720 mm tall, and 500 mm deep, built from 18 mm plywood throughout. Scale any of the three dimensions to match your own router table top or workshop space, the parts list and the nesting method below both scale with it.

Parts list

The sides run the full 720 mm height and 500 mm depth. The top and bottom sit captured between the two sides, so their length is the cabinet's 600 mm outer width minus two side thicknesses: 600 − (2 × 18) = 564 mm (about 22.2 in). The fixed shelf matches the top and bottom exactly, so all three can be cut from the same setup. The back is let in flush within the sides, top and bottom, so it is 564 mm wide to match, and 684 mm (about 27 in) tall: the 720 mm outer height minus two panel thicknesses, 720 − (2 × 18) = 684 mm.

Sizing it to your own router table

600 mm wide and 500 mm deep is a comfortable base for a router table top around 700 to 750 mm (about 27.5 to 29.5 in) on a side, leaving an overhang on every edge for clamps and featherboards. If your top is bigger, grow the cabinet's width and depth to match and recalculate the top, bottom, shelf, and back lengths with the same subtraction above, nothing else in the method changes. For height, 720 mm plus the thickness of the top you add on puts the working surface close to table saw height once casters are fitted, measure your own saw or workbench and adjust up or down before you cut.

The fixed shelf's height inside the carcass is not structural, place it wherever splits your storage the way you want, a shelf set roughly a third of the way up from the bottom leaves a tall bin below for a shop vacuum hose and a shorter one above for bits and wrenches.

How the six panels nest onto one sheet

Here is exactly how all six panels come from a single 2440 × 1220 mm (about 96 × 48 in) sheet of 18 mm plywood, using a 3 mm saw kerf.

• Crosscut the sheet across its 1220 mm width into two zones along the 2440 mm length: a 1698 mm zone and, after the 3 mm kerf, a 2440 − 1698 − 3 = 739 mm zone.
• In the 1698 mm zone, rip two 500 mm wide strips side by side: 500 + 500 + 3 (kerf) = 1003 mm of the 1220 mm width, leaving a 217 mm wide offcut strip the full 1698 mm length.
• Crosscut the first 500 mm strip into the two 720 mm sides: 2 × 720 + 3 (kerf) = 1443 mm, leaving a 1698 − 1443 = 255 mm end offcut.
• Crosscut the second 500 mm strip into the top, bottom, and shelf at 564 mm each: 3 × 564 + 2 × 3 (two kerfs) = 1698 mm, using the strip exactly with nothing left over.
• In the 739 mm zone, rip a 564 mm wide strip for the back, leaving 1220 − 564 − 3 (kerf) = 653 mm of width spare. Crosscut that strip to the back's 684 mm length, leaving 739 − 684 = 55 mm at the end.

That is one full cabinet, all six panels, from one sheet, with a 217 × 1698 mm strip, a 653 × 739 mm panel, and two smaller end offcuts left over, enough for a shelf cleat or two, or a test piece for setting up the cuts before you commit the good sheet.

What to buy

One sheet of 18 mm plywood covers the whole carcass. Add PVA wood glue and 40 mm (about 1.5 in) cabinet screws for the butt joints between the sides, top, bottom and shelf, pre-drilled and countersunk so the plywood face veneer does not split. The back can be glued and screwed into its rebate or simply screwed on last, square and screwed down, it stiffens the whole carcass. Four caster wheels, rated for the finished weight plus the router and any material stacked on top, make the cabinet easy to roll out of the way between sessions.

Keeping the carcass square

Assemble the sides, top, bottom and shelf first, and check the box for square before the glue sets by measuring both corner-to-corner diagonals, they should match. If they do not, push gently on the longer diagonal's corners until the two measurements come together, then clamp. Only fix the back on once the box reads square: a back panel screwed into a box that is already out of true will hold that error in permanently instead of correcting it.

Plan your own cabinet cut list

Scale the width, height and depth to match your own router table top and the space it needs to stand in, the parts list and the nesting method above both scale with it.

SawReady works out the nesting and sheet count for any part list. Enter your cabinet's dimensions, set your sheet size and kerf, and it returns the layout and the exact number of sheets to buy.

Plan my cabinet cut list