If you use a circular saw, tape the good surface with 3m blue tape and
cut from the bottom side (remember: good side up on a table saw; bottom
side up when using a circular saw). A sander wouldn't mess up the top
if you handle it well.

Dave

wrote:

I don't think there's a need to scribe - this is my first project and
its going into a closet that only my wife and I will see. The walls
aren't THAT wavy, and most of all I'm not working to those kind of
tolerances that I can follow a scribed line that is not straight. My
skills aren't there yet. I just need to shave off a straight line and
that's good enough.

I don't have a belt sander, but I've got a 1/4 sheet finish sander -
would that have enough power to do it? Wouldn't it just pull the
plywood apart at the edge?

Would either a sander or circular saw mess up the urethane finish just
next to the cut line?