Tips For Making Cabinets Square With A Circular Saw

Reader question on how to get square cabinets when cutting plywood with a circular saw and what to do when your cabinets aren't square. A lot of good information on how to buy a circular saw for cutting plywood too.

A couple of days ago I received the following email from Catherine regarding cabinets that aren't square.

Hi,

I just found your site and love it. I'm new to woodworking and want to know what tools you use keep boxes square? I see a lot of 90 degree clamps out there and wonder if you recommend any of them? Also, what do you do if your project isn't square? How can you adjust it? Say a cabinet or bookcase for example.

Thank you, Catherine

In a follow up email I found out she's cutting her plywood with a circular saw and guide with pocket screw joinery. Since this is how I also cut my plywood I'm very familiar with the problems. There are four main problems that can cause your cabinets to not be square. In this article I'll discuss what causes cabinets to not be square as well as how to prevent them. At the end  I'll discuss what to do when things don't line up square.

I had planned to write a separate guide on how to buy a circular saw but Catherine's question brings up a lot of the points I wanted to address so I'm including that here.

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Organizing Cable Clutter

Some helpful tips on how to organize cables around your computer desk, entertainment system and other parts of your home.

Sadly, that's an actual picture of what's lurking under my desk. What's even sadder is that's just one small portion of the mess and it repeats itself in other parts of my home. (I won't mention the peanut I had to crop out so you don't think I'm a complete slob!)

I need a lot of different peripherals and even though I have good WiFi equipment as more people in the area use WiFi it's difficult to maintain speeds good enough to stream full HD video to other computers and TVs. I've bought new access points, built antenna boosters and still have to scan and switch channels from time to time. Wired ain't tired! (fake TM)

It's one of the big reasons I'm trying to plan a structured home wiring project. It would get a lot of the cables I have by my computer, and other areas, moved to a central location.

Probably the worst part of the photo is all the dust and pet hair. It's dark down there so I normally can't even tell. I try and vacuum but it's just so hard with that mess. There is definitely no 5-second rule if I drop a snack while at the computer! Partly because it just disappears into the void.

When I have to replace a cord, upgrade a device or try to plug something new in it takes me more time than it should. Over the years I've tried improving my cable management by using different things I had laying around but now it's time to do things right and this is how I'm going about it.

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