George Vondriska shows his shop-made circle jig solution for cutting a perfect circle on a band saw. A WoodWorkers Guild of America original video. Discussion.  How do you get some plans for making a circle cutting jig for bandsaw? Reply. WWGOA Team December 28th, Thanks for the question. This is our primary resource for helping you to build a circle cutting jig for your bandsaw. These will vary depending on the size of your particular table size, but the concepts should be the same for any bandsaw. Let us know if you have any specific questions on this as your build a jig for your table. Reply. Robert April 12th, Searched many circle cutting jigs on the web and although I wont be building this one, you made one very excellent point that a. The circle cutting jig is a very useful jig to have around the shop. The bandsaw circle cutting jig will not only deliver a perfect cut circle every time but also greatly spee ds up production. The jig will allow you to cut circles of any desired size simply by making a simple adjustment on the jig. The bandsaw circle cutting jig is a shop built jig which is easy to build and requires very little material. Material For The Bandsaw Circle Cutting Jig. The jig is made from 3/4″ plywood kicking around the shop. about a 24 x 24″ piece of 3/4″ plywood. I have just completed a circle cutting jig for my band saw. Scribing a circle in thin material using a compass is relatively easy but with thicker plastic it can become problematic. The neat thing about this jig is: 1 - It replaces a bunch of plywood boards I used with holes drilled at various radii. I would have to line up the blade with the dowel insert then cut blanks to almost the exact diameter of the circle I wanted to cut otherwise they would not fit between the blade and the dowel.  I have just completed a circle cutting jig for my band saw. Scribing a circle in thin material using a compass is relatively easy but with thicker plastic it can become problematic. The neat thing about this jig is: 1 - It replaces a bunch of plywood boards I used with holes drilled at various radii. Now you can cut a circle from the wood blank without damaging the surface. By handmadewithashley My YouTube channel! I have always been into crafts. Full plans and video tutorial provided. If you've made it this far, you've noticed that I have had some learning moments with this jig being in use for a while.

Cutting circles can be done in several ways. The Instructable that follows is my method for cutting them at the bandsaw. Provided you already have a bandsaw, this is a very inexpensive shop jig that can be used over and over and should last several years.

Each bandsaw is going to be a little bit different so, it's important that you take measurements directly from your bandsaw.

Additionally, cutting circles on the bandsaw requires a fairly small blade to prevent binding of the blade. Special thanks to mtairymd for his usual awesome work on the plans! For my 14" bandsaw, I chose to make my base 22" wide by 24" deep. You'll want 2 pieces cut to this dimension.

The first step is to establish the saw kerf in the base of the jig. Do not remove from the saw. Note: To accomplish this at the bandsaw, it's important that your bandsaw is set up properly and tracks well using your bandsaw's fence. Setting up your bandsaw is not part of this instructable. However, I would suggest viewing videos from Alex Snodgrass for excellent tutorials for setting up your bandsaw.

The next step is to install the runner. This runner should fit snugly in your bandsaw's miter slot. The fit of the runner is important! It needs to be narrow enough to slide smoothly in the slot but, wide enough so that there's no side to side play. The runner also needs to be slightly thinner than the depth of your miter slot.

Note: Although I used hard plastic for my runner, hardwood, or steel runners would work as well. Set some pennies or similarly sized objects in the bottom of the miter slot to raise the runner slightly above the surface. Apply CA glue super glue to the runner and set the base down on the runner.

Apply weight to the base until the CA glue is cured. Note: Applying a quickset activator to the bottom of the base will speed up the curing of the CA glue.

Once the CA glue is cured, remove the base and runner from the saw and secure the runner with screws. Next up, we need to install the backstop for the jig. On my saw, this stop will stop against my fence rail and allow me to clamp this block directly to this rail. If your saw has a different fence setup, you may need to devise a stop and securing option that better fits your saw.

I also cut a small notch to fit over the runner from the previous step as this stop will be attached directly to the base. Note: After using this jig for a while, I notice that there is just a little bit of flex in this stop. To avoid this flex, simply laminate 2 of these strips together before attaching them to the bottom of the base.

Using a square, locate the front of the blade and draw a line to the outside edge on the base. It's important that the pin is located at the leading edge of the blade. There are 4 pieces to the cutting deck that will be covered in the next couple of couple of steps. The first step is the support deck to the left of the saw blade.

The only purpose of this portion is to support the workpiece as you're cutting your circles. Using the second piece from the earlier step, cut this piece to fit the measurement from the left edge of the jig to the left edge of the saw kerf.

This piece should fit flush on the left edge, front, and back without interfering with the saw kerf. Note: I used a couple pin nails to secure it until the glue dried to speed up the process. The next step is to build the sliding block out of the remaining piece of plywood leftover from the previous step. Transfer these marks to the remaining piece of plywood to be cut at the table saw. Note: Keep all the pieces! These are the final pieces to finish the jig deck.

Set the 3 pieces created in the last step on the base, use some ship material to create a little space around the actual slide block before securing the front and back of the deck. Note: I used some card stock to create enough space for the slide block to slide easily in the groove. Secure the front and the back pieces of the deck using glue. I used pin nails to secure these pieces until the glue dried. Note: Don't get glue too close to the edges where the slide block will be.

Any squeeze-out in this area could interfere with the function of the slide block. Note: After using this jig for a while, I noticed that the glue alone wasn't enough to secure these pieces. I added screws to the front and back sections of the right side to better secure them. I anticipate only a few changes. This would keep it more balanced such that magnets are not needed.

However, I will cutout a semi-circle above the left side of throat plate, so that dust collection can happen. Along with a slot behind for the blade, of course. For smaller circles, mostly. Anyway, your details on the dovetail slider were very helpful, and it's a great project!

I glad you found it useful. I really like your suggestions for improvements. If I made it over again I'd probably extend it past the blade as well. Very nice! I'm going to make one of these, using your plan. You have a channel at the front of your bandsaw, you could slide-in something that locks it, rather than futz with the magnets.

Btw, I love your push block. Very nice work! Love the attention to detail. Exact same principle as the one I built for my ghastly relic of a bandsaw Ryobi BSB but you spent more time making yours than I did. A while ago, I made a circle cutting jig for my band saw.

Yours is MUCH better. Question, unless I'm cutting very thin wood, when I try to cut the wood tries to push the blade sideways and bind up. Any ideas? I just wanted to add I went to a Woodworking Show a couple years ago and sat in on a session of Alex Snodgrass' bandsaw clinic. That class was a gamer changer for me and there's a video of it up on YouTube here: I highly recommend you check it out. Hopefully you can get your bandsaw tuned up well.

GoofyDave, I had a similar problem with my cheap-o Ryobi "hobby" band saw. Once I made the same adjustments to my saw, it cuts perfectly every time. It's actually a useful tool for me, when it wasn't in the past. Thanks for the response. Funny thing about that video is that the saw he is demonstrating is very similar to my craftsman saw.

For an old, hobbiest saw, it works pretty well. Thanks again. This is a common problem. Make sure you are using a sharp blade with the correct number of teeth. Also make sure your blade is properly tensioned and is tracking well. Finally, go slow and use a steady feed rate.

Let the blade do its job. Hope this helps! Thanks for the tips. I'm pretty sure the blade is ok, but I will check the tension. Slow and steady wins the race As Max pointed out, slow and steady cutting wins the race. But it's also possible that you have the jig a hair too far forward or back in relation to the point on the wood that the blade cuts.

The nature of circle cutting jigs is that the cutting of the wood must happen almost exactly on the axis of the pivotting point or the blade will attempt to track in the kerf, causing some binding. If your jig has a fixed depth stop a cross bar that registers on the table front like this one does try adjusting the rear tacking bearings to nudge the blade forward or back.

If the blade binds on the outside of the circle's kerf, bring the blade back. If on the inside, bring the blade forward. Oh, yeah. That make total sense now that you say that. I'm pretty sure that may be the problem because I don't have any stop on there now. That's gonna be the first thing I check.

Thanks so much! By handmadewithashley My YouTube channel! More by the author:. About: Hi, I am Ashley. I am a geek and woodworker. I also have a YouTube channel where I share video tutorials.

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