# Fixing jagged edge in plywood



## falcon1 (May 8, 2014)

Don't know if I'm posting this in correct forum... but here is the situation.

I sawed plywood into size with my handsaw








and then glued 3 pieces of plywood together to form a rectangle. However the pieces I sawed were not completely straight so I now have jagged edges so I decided to try to even it out with my jigsaw and it made it smoother but I still have hills and valleys in the piece. What is the best way to straight it out "perfectly"?
I own a cheap hand planer and I tried that without much luck, it almost seemed not want to start cutting.

Is plywood more trouble than it is worth? It was quite difficult to handsaw it when I have had much less problem sawing "normal" wood.


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## Gilgaron (Mar 16, 2012)

I usually have better luck machining manmade materials... so, circular saw or table saw in plywood's case. The hand tools seem to do best in solid wood. 

I don't know how to build a rectangle with three pieces, so beyond that I think a picture would be needed for further tips.


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## falcon1 (May 8, 2014)

Gilgaron said:


> I don't know how to build a rectangle with three pieces, so beyond that I think a picture would be needed for further tips.


I glued three plywood pieces to form one thicker piece.  That piece needs to be rectangle with 90° corners and straight edges.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

falcon1 said:


> Btw. only powertool I have is cordless hand drill.


You will need more tools that a cordless hand drill.


















.


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## Gilgaron (Mar 16, 2012)

Well without power tools I think you will be best off remaking your rectangular prism in solid wood so you can true it up with a handplane. You can try it on the plywood but I suspect it'll be slow and dull your blade very quickly. When you cut the blocks you can also score your cutline with a knife, deepen the cutline with a chisel and then cut with a backsaw to get as precise as possible beforehand.


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## falcon1 (May 8, 2014)

cabinetman said:


> You will need more tools that a cordless hand drill.


I have also jigsaw but it seems that I will just need to eat up the cost of the plywood (only $80 so I could live with that) and start over with solid wood. :mellow:

Can probably use that plywood in later projects when my skill and tools are more up to it. :smile:


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## jenfour6 (May 6, 2014)

falcon1 said:


> Don't know if I'm posting this in correct forum... but here is the situation.
> 
> I sawed plywood into size with my handsaw
> 
> ...


Have you tried just using a hand saw? It might take a long time but it's worth a shot. If it's really raggedy after that you could rub it down with sand paper.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

You could try using big sanding blocks like below, made with belts from a hand held belt sander.


























.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

I think if youre trying to straighten the ragged edges a plane is your best bet,, though speaking from experience, plywood is hell on planer blades


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