I'm in the process of making a cabinet, but I messed up with the back piece—it's not square! I've got about 1/8 inch of excess on some sides because I accidentally ripped the panel while it was against the fence on my table saw. Now I'm trying to figure out how to fix this issue. I was thinking about using a long square as a guide and running it through the table saw, but the panel is 24x26.25 inches and doesn't fit on either side of my saw. I'm also considering getting a framing square to mark a crosshatch and then using a template bit to square it up. Any tips or tricks you can share? Thanks a lot!
4 Answers
Have you thought about building a crosscut sled? It can help you make straighter cuts and keep everything squared up for further projects! Here's a reference for a simple sled design: https://learn.kregtool.com/plans/crosscut-sled/.
If you don't have a track saw, just take a straight edge or a straight piece of wood, measure the distance from the edge of your circular saw's face plate to the blade, and mark your cut line accordingly. Clamp that straight edge down and cut along it. Just take your time, and practice a bit if you haven't done this before—it'll help you get a cleaner cut!
First, measure both sides and the diagonals to ensure you get the most accurate shape possible. You can then clamp straight edges down and use a router to cut the skewed sides, though a circular saw can work too—just make sure you’re cutting accurately!
If you have at least one good square corner, a simple solution is to hold it up against the cabinet and mark out the other three corners from there. Just connect the dots with a straightedge. However, if you're depending on the back panel to square the cabinet, you’ll need a large square to figure out the marks instead. For making the cuts, a track saw would be ideal, but if you don’t have one, you could build a jig for your circular saw or just use a sharp hand plane. Just be sure to score your line with a marking knife for clean cuts!