Honest offcuts
Every nest leaves offcuts. The question is whether they are useful or just firewood. A good nest keeps the leftover as one usable strip along an edge, not a ring of thin slivers around every part. Most nesting software can bias the parts to one corner if you ask it to.
Rules that keep the rack sane
- Anything narrower than 150 mm is scrap unless a job needs it this week.
- Offcuts get marked with material, thickness and date in pencil.
- The offcut rack has a size limit. When it is full, the oldest pieces go.
- Small parts for jigs and test cuts come from offcuts first.
Melamine and grain
On melamine-faced board, grain direction and chip-free edges matter more than squeezing one extra part on. Use a compression bit and accept slightly lower yield. A rejected cabinet door costs more than the board it saved.
The slip we see most
Keeping every offcut "just in case" until the rack is full of slivers nobody will ever use.
How you know it is working
The offcut rack holds useful pieces only, and jig and test cuts come from it first.
Written by Nadia Pillay, Training Manager. Nadia designs the training cell days and the college tray systems.
Checklist
- Nest biased to one edge
- Offcuts labelled in pencil
- Size limit on the offcut rack
- Compression bit for faced board
Pair this runbook with
Stuck after the checklist? Email cnc@cncpme.co.za with your city, machine and a photo.
