I wanted there to be a 0.5" deep slot for my writing utensils to lay flat. Therefore, I only needed to cut through one sheet of the plywood. I used the mill to drill four 0.5" diameter holes in each of the corners. Then, I used a jigsaw to cut out the inner area. After that, I took down the remaining wood with a dremel to get a flat surface with seemingly parallel lines. I used 220 and 800 grit sand paper to get a smooth finish on the inner edges.