I tried to make a circle cutting jig because I would like to trim an accurate circle with a www.- gh it is a common circular cutting tool, a scale. Product Description. Features: Circle cutting jig is great for making speaker cutouts. Cuts different circles from /4 to /inches in diameter. Precision-drilled pivot holes keep pins in selected holes. Easily read scale is calibrated for a 1/4-inch router bit. Mounts directly to the base of different models of plunge routers. Specification: Color:Yellow Material:Plastic Size * * 5mm / * * in Weightg / oz. Package List: 1 * Tool. View more. There are many pre-made circle cutting jigs on the market, but they are fairly expensive, and many of them don't have a very lar   I will show how I made a precise circle cutting jig using nothing but scrap plywood, and a few nuts and bolts. This basic plan can be modified to make accurate circles of almost any size. Disclaimer: Please practice shop safety, especially when working with power tools. Make sure you are using a sharp blade with the correct number of teeth. This is great! The higher number of same-thickness plies tends to make it flatter and more dimensionally stable. My … More About handmadewithashley ». Alternatively, if a hole would be acceptable on the diy circle cutting jig 65, but not on top, you can drill the hole only part way through the material, and cut from the bottom. Line up the straight Diy Circle Cutting Jig 400 edge with the outside edge where you marked the baseplate, and parallel to the length of the base.

Choose which side you want to moun the router on, and chamfer the mounting holes on the opposite side. You want the chamfers just deep enough that the screws will sit beneath the surace. Drill or rout out the center hole. It just has to be slightly bigger than the largest router bit you might use.

A hole saw is probably best for larger holes, but I used a twist bit, and it caught and made a pretty messy hole. It won't really effect anything other than aesthetics, but next time I'll take the time to get the correct bit out. I did clean up the hole a little with the router later.

The mounting screws are most likely much too short to reach all the way through the base material. We could buy longer mounting screws, but unless you have a set of really long router bits, the thickness of the base may limit the depth of cuts you can make with the finished jig.

To solve both problems, I reccomend routing a recess in the base for the router to sit down in. After clamping the base to a work surface with the router mounting side up, rout out the baseplate area, using the line you traced as a guide. It's easiest to start at the center and work around the the hole clockwise, sneaking up on the final size with a few light passes.

Now the baseplate can be removed from the router, and the router can be installed in the jig using the baseplate screws. Make sure all the screws sit flush with the bottom suface of the jig so that they won't catch on anything. While the easiest thing to do is buy a t-handle or star handle for jigs, but I'm too cheap to do that, so I make my own.

It takes a piece of scrap wood, a t-nut which costs just a few cents, and takes just a few minutes to make. I make them in bulk to use in all of my jigs, and I won't go into the process here.

It's easy enough to simply cut out a shape you like, drill a hole in the center to accept the t-nut, and hammer it in place. I didn't have any threaded rod, so I just cut the head off of a 3" bolt. Screw the nut onto the center of the threaded rod, and then place the washer on. Slide the portion above the washer up throught the slot in the base, and then screw the handle on to the top.

Alternatively, if you have access to a metal lathe as I do, you can cut the threads off one end of the threaded rod, making a smooth post of a specific size. That way you can use a drill bit that matches the specific size, and always be sure to have a nice tight fit. The threaded rod with an appropriate sized drill bit should work well enough for most applications though.

This step is entirely optional, but I thought it might make it slightly easier to use. The base had quite a bit of uneccesary wood, so I decided to cut it off, and round the corners. I also slightly beveled the edges on the bottom side with some sandpaper so that they wouldn't catch on anything as they slide around the circle.

The first step to using it is setting the post height. Measure the thickness of the material you'll be cutting a circle in. Adjust the nut on the post so that it sticks out slightly less than the material is thick. Mark the center of the planned circle, and drill a hole that the threaded rod post will fit in snugly. Set the post at the desired distance from the router bit, and tighten the handle on top to lock it in place.

If you are cutting all the way through your material, make sure to hang the portion being cut off the table, and keep rotating the material periodically during the cut to keep from cutting the table.

You could also put a sacrificial piece of scrap underneath the material instead. It's generally safer and easier to cut outer edges of circles in a counter-clockwise direction, and inside edges clockwise. If you don't want a small hole in the cener of whatever you're cutting, you can use a sacrificial piece on top.

Drill a hole in a piece of scrap, and use doublesided tape to secure it to the workpiece with the hole at the center of where you want to cut the circle. Then just increase the depth of cut by the thickness of the sacrificial piece, and cut as usual.

Alternatively, if a hole would be acceptable on the underside, but not on top, you can drill the hole only part way through the material, and cut from the bottom. Have fun, and be safe! I have the same fixed-base Porter Cable router and made a circle-routing jig for it. What I'm trying to sort out is how to start the cuttingdo you have to loosen the router height adjustment while it's running and rotate it down to the depth you want and re-tighten?

I probably should just use my plunge router, I guess! Reply 8 months ago. Reply 2 years ago. Don't ever loosen or attempt to adjust the depth while it's plugged in, let alone running.

A plunge router is safer, but it can be done easily without one. Set the depth with the router un-plugged, plug it in, turn it on while holding it securely it will jump a bit when you turn it on , then slowly lower the bit into the workpiece while keeping the side of the baseplate against the fence.

Tip 2 years ago. One very important thing to remember is to take into account the thickness of the cutter bit you are using, and compensate for half of that in your finished circle diameter. This is great! I came up with a really similar jig on my own. Good to see it's a common solution :. Once you tighten the nut to hold the desired size of the circle, it seems like you will be tightening the fixture to the work piece making it hard to go around.?

Reply 5 years ago. What none of the pictures show is the post that sticks down from the jig under the t-handle. When you tighten the t-handle you are only tightening the post into position. I milled out a slot with a quarter inch uncut spiral router bit all the way through the blank running the majority of the length of the body. The jig is now ready for mounting the router.

This jig works on the concept of a pivot pin that runs along the slot in the body of the jig. This allows the jig to be adjusted to any increment and any size circle within its capacity. The pivot pin is then threaded into a sliding t-nut, sent through the slot in the jig, and secured on top with a knob.

This method can be made without the use of a lathe. The design turned out great and is very functional. I tested both pivot pin assemblies and they each work without issues. You might want to watch by build videos of this project to see a step by step tutorial on how to build this jig.

They are on this page below and also on my YouTube channel. I have also listed the tools and materials I used in this project below. If you would like to build this jig yourself the follow the link below to download my CAD and Sketchup template. If you want me to build one for you or if you would like to buy the hardware kit pivot pin assembly then follow that same link to my RedneckDIY store.

Good luck!

Moving Table Cnc Machine 2020 Wood River Woodworking Instrument