I need to cut a bunch of cuts on full sheets of plywood so I make a cut table. It’s really just a full sheet of plywood that has the cut patterns removed so I can lay down my sheet goods and cut without any kickback from the jigsaw.

I stabilize the table with 2x4s so it lasts a while. Last time I inserted the 2x4s after the pattern was cut and moved things around until they looked right. It worked fine, but I think this time I will try it without the guesswork involved in reassembling the pieces and guessing with the supports.

This time I am going to screw up a whole work surface, trace my patterns and then rout out the pattern freehand. Freehand routing is not pretty, but it’s quick-ish and it gets me where I need to go.

I set the depth and make the first run at cutting, then check the depth by running the jigsaw with 3 layers of plywood under it. Perfect.