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R/FREE TOOL

Rebar cutting optimizer.

Your bar bending schedule loads here automatically, or type in your own cut lengths. Get the cutting pattern for every stock bar with the least offcut.

Cut list

Example cut list. Replace it with your own lengths, or build a bar bending schedule and it will appear here automatically.

DiaCut length (mm)QuantityFrom
Stock bars to order

26

0.4 t of 12,000 mm bars
20.9 kg left as offcut, 19.0 kg of it in reusable lengths

10 mm

8 bars of 12,000 mm15.3% offcutOptimal: no plan can use fewer bars

6 m stock bars would cut this down to 9.7% offcut (15 bars, 5.4 kg left over instead of 9.1 kg), if your supplier stocks them.

  1. 7 ×

    8 × 1,355 mm · offcut 1,160 mm

  2. 1 ×

    4 × 1,355 mm · offcut 6,580 mm

Reusable offcuts, included in the offcut above: 6,580, 1,160, 1,160, 1,160, 1,160, 1,160, 1,160, 1,160 mm

16 mm

18 bars of 12,000 mm3.5% offcutOptimal: no plan can use fewer bars
  1. 10 ×

    2 × 4,200 + 3,500 mm · offcut 100 mm

  2. 5 ×

    5 × 2,400 mm · offcut 0 mm

  3. 1 ×

    2 × 3,500 + 2 × 2,400 mm · offcut 200 mm

  4. 1 ×

    3 × 3,500 mm · offcut 1,500 mm

  5. 1 ×

    3 × 2,400 mm · offcut 4,800 mm

Reusable offcuts, included in the offcut above: 4,800, 1,500 mm

S-01/WHY IT MATTERSOFFCUT

Where rebar waste comes from

Steel is bought in stock lengths and cut on site or in the yard. Every stock bar that is cut into lengths leaves an offcut, and offcuts that are too short to use are scrap. Cutting the longest bars first and filling the remaining length with shorter ones, as this tool does, keeps that scrap down. On a large job the difference between an ad hoc cut and a planned one is tonnes of steel.

Start from a schedule: build it in the BBS calculator and it appears here on its own, with the cut lengths and quantities grouped by diameter. Change the schedule and this page follows.

S-02/QUESTIONS4

It takes the longest piece still to cut and places it in the stock bar where it leaves the least length over, opening a new bar only when nothing fits. This best-fit method is the standard approach for cut lists. The result also shows the theoretical minimum, total length divided by stock length, so you can see how close the plan is.

The plan uses exactly the theoretical minimum number of stock bars for that diameter. No arrangement of cuts can use fewer, so the only way to reduce the offcut further is a different stock length.

They are listed separately and left out of the plan. A bar longer than the stock length needs a lap, a mechanical coupler or a longer stock bar, and where a lap goes is a detailing decision for the drawings.

Shear cutting loses no length, so the default is 0. If bars are cut with a saw or an abrasive disc, enter the width lost per cut, typically a few millimetres, and the plan allows for it.
ARCHED / ESTIMATING

Want the schedule and cutting plan done for you?

Send the reinforcement drawings and we return the bar bending schedule and a cutting plan for your stock lengths, in Excel, checked and signed off by an engineer.