Interesting to read about your experience of this and lots of great advice. Looks great. Very similar projects and materials I’ve been thinking about. Did you end up cutting it yourself or go down the ‘Having it cut for you’ route?
Although it would have been easy to ask the timberyard to do all the cuts, I wouldn't have learned how to do it properly.
Instead, I created a simpler cut sheet for them to break the big sheets down into managabe sizes. One or two cuts in each board. I'm glad that I did that because managing the 16 full size boards that I ordered would have been almost impossible. I also built a very rough sheet holder frame out of scraps of wood and old OSB to keep the bits getting damaged and getting it off the floor. I gave the timberyard a numbering system for each piece and got them to mark each sheet big and clear top left on masking tape. This really helped me organise all the bits, I can't reccommend this enough because it's easy to get mixed up and cut the wrong bit (which I still did even with all the planning).
As for cutting, I used the Kreg Accu-cut and my Dewalt Circular saw. I bought two saw blades - a Trend 40 tooth tungsten blade and a wolfcraft 100 tooth blade. I found the 100 tooth blade would burn the edges badly on the 18mm plywood, but was much better for the 6mm. The Tred 40 Tooth one was excellent, the only time I experienced (very minimal) tearout was when the board wasn't completely flat. Nothing that couldn't be easily sanded out. Halfway through the project, I was getting burn marks on the wood. I found out that was just buildup of gunk on the sawblade. I used tool cleaner and it was like having a new blade again.
As for the surface I used to cut on - I build two decent size workbenches with retractable wheels so I could move them apart and put a big sheet of plywood between them, making a huge work area. I used a thick sheet of insulation foam to cut the pieces, making sure to only just cut into the sacrificial surface by a few mm.
Your neighbours will hate you, those saws are loud. I started with ear plugs and quickly moved to proper ear defenders. The other bad thing is the dust. I have a cheap shop vac, but there was still so much dust. Even attaching the nozzle to the saw outlet, it still kicks so much dust out. That's probably one example where a more expensive setup would help.
Just remember to practise on something smaller or less precise first. I built the benches and a wood log store to practise on something rougher before attempting the furniture. It was so much fun though, I thoroughly reccommend it.
