How to Cut a Square Hole in Wood [Chisel, Drill, Jigsaw, Router]

Cutting a square hole in wood requires precision. Whether you’ve got a chisel, a drill, a jigsaw, or a router in your toolkit, each presents its own approach to this task.

While I prefer the router, I’ve had success with each of these methods. Pick your tool of choice and lets dive in.

Safety Measures

To make sure you stay safe from splinters or sharp blade, make sure you follow these safety tips first.

• Wear a pair of safety goggles before using any power tools
• Work in a room with good ventilation or outdoors
• Follow all the instructions that come with power tools
• Wear your protective work clothes (gloves, dust mask, closed shoes, etc.)
• Ensure that the cutting tools have a sharp blade

Also, you must make sure that your focus isn’t elsewhere in order to not make mistakes. The slightest mistake in measurement can lead to more issues that you’ll figure out when you’re done. In addition to that, you need to pay close attention when you’re using cutting tools.

Tools Needed

There are a few items you’ll be working with besides the cutting tools. These cutting tools will vary according to the cutting method you’ll be using. I’ll list the other objects you’ll need to make a perfect square hole in wood.

• A pencil and a measuring tape
• A framing square
• A straightedge
• Sandpaper and an oscillating tool for finishing up

If you’re cutting a square hole in plywood, you’ll want to have different types of sandpaper, as you will have splintering.

How to Cut a Square Hole in Wood

Cutting a square hole in wood is essential for many woodworking projects. For instance, it’s the key step in creating most wooden joints, like the mortise and tenon joints.

Aside from that, you can use it on a larger scale to cut out a hole for a window or a frame.

1. Draw a Square on Wood

To draw a perfect square on your wood surface, you should follow these easy steps.

• Determine the center point of the wooden sheet
• Mark that point with your pencil
• Use your framing square to draw the square you’ll cut out on the wood surface
• Check whether the dimensions are accurate

Now that you know how to draw your shape, let’s get to business and find out how to cut it.

2. Pick Your Cutting Method

The second stage is choosing a suitable cutting tool to use on your wood sheet. There are four techniques I outline when cutting a hole in wood; with a chisel, a drill and saw, and a router.

In the following section, I’ll tell you all about each technique.

How to Cut a Square Hole By Hand

Using a chisel is the best way to cut a square in wood by hand. If you don’t have any power tools, this is the best way.

Using a chisel is the most basic way to cut a hole in wood. However, it requires some time and effort to be able to handle it correctly. Also, it takes practice to get the final cut as precise as possible.

You can use this method when working on a small woodworking project. Another reason to use a chisel is when you need to cut a thin sheet of wood.

First of all, check that your chisel is sharp enough. Then, you can start following these steps.

1. Position the tip of the chisel on a corner of the square you’ve drawn
2. Tap on the chisel with a sledgehammer as hard as possible
3. Keep tapping until it cuts through the entire wood thickness
4. Repeat the above steps for each corner
5. Cut the square out

How to Cut a Square Hole With a Drill and Circular Saw

In this method, you’ll be using two cutting tools. Along with the drill, you can use a handy cordless circular saw.

This method works when you’re working on small or big woodworking projects. What’s also great about it is that you can use it on thin or thick wood.

Using a drill is fairly easy. But the trick here is knowing how to properly use a circular saw. Because its a handheld tool, its hard to be accurate with your cut.

Consider using a circular saw fence to improve the precision of your cuts.

These steps should cover everything you need to do to cut square holes in a wood sheet using a drill and saw.

1. Install a suitable drill bit
2. Place the drill bit to one corner of the drawn square
3. Using a high powered drill, drill until you’ve made a clean hole through the wood
4. Repeat the previous steps with each square corner
5. Use the saw to cut along the reference square lines

Note: This process can dull your drill bits – here’s how to sharpen them. 

How to Cut Square Holes With a Jigsaw

Cutting a square hole in wood with a jigsaw is a straightforward process, but it isn’t my first choice. Jigsaws are handheld, making it difficult to get precision with even the steadiest of hands.

You could consider a makeshift fence, just like I did with the circular saw.

1. Measure carefully and accurately. Mark your cuts on the wood
2. Next, drill a hole in one corner of the square. This hole needs to be big enough to fit the blade of the jigsaw.
3. Insert the jigsaw blade into the hole and begin cutting along the line to the next corner.
4. Keep the saw steady and follow the line closely. Remember, it’s easier to take more off later if needed, but you can’t put wood back once it’s cut.
5. When you reach the corner, carefully pivot the jigsaw 90 degrees and continue along the next line.
6. Repeat this process for the remaining two sides of the square.

After you complete the final cut, the waste piece should drop away, leaving a square hole in your wood.

How to Cut Square Holes With a Router

Now, I’ll discuss the third and final way to cut square holes. As a beginner, it might not be the most suitable method because it requires more practice. So, it might seem rather complicated.

You need to have more experience with a router in order to try this technique.

When to Use This Technique

Using a router to cut shapes into wood is great when you have a very thick wood sheet. Also, it can save you a lot of time and effort.

How to Do It

The first thing you should keep in mind is that you have to be precise when you create a template on the router table. This will determine how clean the cutting result will be.

1. Make a template using the template guides and the router bits
2. Use the square dimensions to create the layout for this template
3. Add 0.35 inches in each line of the template
4. Drill a pilot hole in one corner of the square on the wood sheet, the pilot hole will serve as the starting point for your cut
5. Use the pilot hole and align the router fence with the square you want to cut
6. Switch the router on and let it cut along one line of the square
7. Pause the router and rotate the square to cut through another line
8. Repeat the last 3 steps on all the square lines

Finishing Up

Now that you’re done with cutting out a square of wood, you’re left with an unfinished hole. If you’re experienced with a jigsaw, your cut might be already clean. Despite that, you should find some areas that might need attention here or there.

In this final step, you should use a piece of sandpaper to smooth out the edges. This gets rid of jagged edges so you can finally use the piece of wood in your woodworking project.

Start with low grit sandpaper to work your way around the unfinished areas. Then, repeat this step a few times, each time with a higher grit paper until you get to 320 grit.

When you get to this point, your work should be as smooth as you want it to be. Pro tip: If the lines that you cut with the jigsaw are too jagged, you can use an oscillating tool to fix that before using the sandpaper.

Conclusion

To master woodworking, you must learn how to cut square holes in wood. You can achieve this by using a chisel, a drill and saw, or a router. Also, don’t forget to wear your protective work clothes to stay safe from wood particles and dust. With enough practice and determination, you’ll be able to do it with more precision and ease.