4 Ways to Cut Circles in Wood // DIY Circle Cutting Jigs

in this video i'll show you 4 different ways  to cut circles out of wood using various tools   i'll show you what works for cutting really  big circles and how to cut tiny ones too   so the only method i've actually ever used to  cut circles is my router but today i'm going   to figure out how to make some really simple  jigs using different tools around the shop   now be sure to stick around until the  end where i go through my favorite   and not so favorite methods and go  through a few of the pros and cons of each   the first method is using a plunge router and  a circle cutting jig now you can buy a jig but   i'm going to make one out of a scrap piece  of 1/4 inch plywood i could leave it like   this but i'm going to trace out a shape to  make my jig look a little more professional   with that done i used my bandsaw to cut  out the shape after that i ran the edges   on my sander just to smooth out all the  edges and avoid any potential splinters the good thing about making your own circle jig  is that you can be sure it'll fit with your router   just remove the base and use  it to trace out the screw holes   then drill the screw holes and make sure  to counter sync them so that when you   attach the jig to the router the screw  heads will sit flush below the surface i plunged my bit through the  jig then removed it and made   the hole bigger using a 1 inch forstner bit ok so if i want to make say  an 18 inch diameter circle   i'll make a mark at 9 inches measuring from  the bit and make a small pilot hole in the jig   here i'm getting set up with my bench  cookies to start routing out my circle   but first i took a minute to install a  cord reel that i picked up at Princess Auto   in my small shop i'm constantly tripping over  extension cords so this should help keep my   cords out of the way so with that i could plug  in my router and get back to making circles   i found the center of my blank and made a small  pilot hole just big enough to hold the finish   nail that i hammered into place then checked that  my jig moved smoothly all the way around i set   my plunge depth to 1/8th of an inch and plunged  the bit then one around in a clockwise direction   in case you're wondering i'm using an up spiral  bit from CMT Orange Tools the sponsor of today's   video after the first pass i lowered my  bit another eighth of an inch and made a   second pass at this depth then repeated  going progressively deeper on each pass   until i finally made it all the way  through and was left with a perfect circle now this method as with each of the methods will  leave a small pinhole in the middle of the circle   but this will usually go on the bottom  of a table or something and be hidden alright so not bad at all but this piece was  relatively thin and although large not that   large so what happens when you have a really big  piece like a table top that's thick and maybe out   of hardwood? well that's where the second method  comes in that combines both a router and a jigsaw just as before i'll first start by using  a router circle cutting jig i made another   pilot hole in my jig to make a larger circle  and found the center of my piece of wood then   secured the jig with a small nail just as before  i started with a shallow depth of 1/8th of an   inch plunged my router and went around clockwise  i went a little deeper on the next pass and made   about three revolutions in total then stopped at  this point i removed the jig and grabbed my jigsaw   for the next step i'm going to  use a CMT fine cutting blade   you'll find a link for all the tools i used  in this video in the description down below   the idea is to use a jigsaw to cut away the excess  material i'm using the groove left by the router   as a guide i want to cut close to the inside  edge of the circle as close as possible without   actually touching it so that when i'm done i'll  be left with the lip all the way around that'll   shave off in the next step to do this i'll flip  over the circle so that the lip is on the bottom   to shave off the excess wood  i'll use this CMT flush trim bit   i lined up the bearing with the bottom lip  which will serve as my guide and with that   setting locked in i went around the circle  this time making sure to go counterclockwise   i realized making this cut in one pass was a bit  ambitious according to the sound my router was   making so i made progressive shallow passes always  right to left until the bearing bottomed out   against the wood eventually after several passes  i was left with a perfect circle and a huge mess all right so those were the 2 circle cutting jig  options personally i prefer the first option using   just the upspiral bit with the circle jig versus  using a combination with the jigsaw and then the   router again i just find it takes less time to  just stick with the jig and yeah it takes a lot   of time to go round and round and make it all  the way through but still i think it saves time   in the long run plus it made much less of a mess  than using the flush trim bit at the end there   so i would stick with the first option next up  let's take a look at the bandsaw and make a circle   cutting jig for that one the next method i'm going  to try is a bandsaw circle cutting jig for this   you'll want to use a thin quarter inch blade  which will make it easier to cut small circles   i want the jig to overhang so i'll make it about  18 inches this way and about 20 inches this way   i cut the base out of 3/4 inch plywood then  grabbed a scrap piece of hardwood to cut a runner   to fit the miter slot it should be snug with no  side to side play and sit just below the table   with that i roughly positioned the base  where i wanted it skewed to the outside   and then roughly marked the runner's position i applied some glue then positioned  the runner on the markings and used a   square to position the runner while  i secured it with a few brad nails with the runner secured i installed the jig   on the bandsaw and cut the kerf  stopping roughly halfway through at this point i used a couple of clamps to lock  the jig in place temporarily you'll notice the   jig overhangs the table at the front and this  is important so that you can secure a stop   make sure the stop you're using is thin  enough so that it won't hit any obstacles   i used a few dabs of super glue to secure  it under the sled up against the bandsaw   i had to use two short pieces due to some  obstacles so i added a second stop on the   other side before taking it back to my  workbench and securing the stops with a   few brad nails at this point i could trim the  runner to size then grab a square that i'll use   to trace a line perpendicular to my kerf line  starting right from the tip of the kerf line i'll use this line as a reference to measure  and make holes for a pin that will secure my   work piece and act as a pivot point for my pin i'm  using a simple finish nail with the head cut off i found the center of my blank and made a small  pilot hole for the pin then mounted it to the jig alright we're ready to cut some circles after  mounting the jig i fired up the bandsaw and cut   straight into the work piece until i hit the  stops and the sled couldn't move any further   i could then rotate the work piece  clockwise and i was surprised by how   easy it was to cut a circle this way i think  i found a new favorite method to cut circles   in a few seconds i had a perfect circle cut cutout the one drawback i did notice is that  the blade leaves marks around the edges   so a little more sanding would  be required using this method   i was curious to see if i could cut a really small  circle using this jig and i wasn't disappointed all right so that's a wrap on the bandsaw method  and if you have a bandsaw i highly recommend using   this method not only is the jig super fast and  easy to set up but cutting out circles takes no   time at all and it's especially effective when  cutting out really small circles like this one   next up i'm not too sure about this method but  i'm going to try to cut circles using my table saw   let's go the next and final method  is a table saw circle cutting jig   for this you'll need a piece of 3/4 inch  ply and a strip of hardwood for the runner   after cutting the runner to size i used  a few pennies to raise it up slightly   i want to position the base so that  it overhangs the blade just slightly   i applied a few dabs of super glue then  held it down 30 seconds while it bonded   i could then remove the sled and drill  a few holes using a countersink bit   and secure the runners using some number 6 screws  making sure to sink the heads below the surface i trimmed the runner to size and then tested out  the sled to make sure it was sliding smoothly   before going any further i'm going to swap  out my old blade that's getting pretty dull   and replace it with a 50 tooth combination  blade with that done i could trim off the   edge of the sled and create that zero  clearance edge getting a nice clean cut about halfway front to back i made a  line through the sled that will again   be my guide for making pilot holes and  putting a pivot pin into the sled after   finding the center of my board i made  a pilot hole and mounted it to the sled   okay the idea from what i've seen is to start  by cutting off the four corners of the square next i'm going to cut off the eight tips  progressively making this shape more circular okay now i'm going to keep  shaving off the remaining   tips in order to make this as  close to a circle as possible with that done i grabbed my mag switch and  positioned it so that the line on the sled   is right at the front tip of the blade's  teeth with the sled pushed up against the   stop the idea is to rotate the circle clockwise  into the blade that being said i found getting   the placement of the sled just right took a  lot of trial and error in order to find the   sweet spot that would create a perfect circle i  repositioned the stop and tried again a few times   but as you can see here i'm actually  getting burn marks which is not what i want   ultimately i found that this position  worked best for me but it's definitely worth   experimenting with different positions once  you find the sweet spot you can actually   get a really decent clean cut circle  using a table saw who would have thought so my least favorite method had to be the  table saw maybe there's just something about   using a table saw to cut circles that makes  me uncomfortable but besides that i found   it really hard to find that perfect sweet spot  where the blade will make that perfect circle   so not my favorite method overall now my favorite  method had to be the bandsaw not only is it quick   to set up this jig but cutting out circles is  super fast and on the plus side you can make   these really tiny circles no problem at all on  the downside there are some limitations to cutting   circles on the bandsaw one being the size of the  circle that you can actually cut out other than   that it does leave some marks on the outside  of the circle that you'll have to sand away   but besides that this is a pretty great method  now the router option is a really great option   sure it makes a mess but there's really no limit  to the size that you can make this jig and you can   cut out really huge table tops using the router i  do recommend sticking with just the upspiral bit   rather than using the jigsaw and the flush cut  bit it just seems faster overall and less steps   to actually cutting out the circle so just stick  with that bit and you'll have a perfect circle in   no time alright well that's a wrap on this video  until next time thanks for watching see you soon!

Channel: DIY Montreal

Views: 278,229

Rating: 4.93506 out of 5

Keywords: 4 ways to cut circles in wood, Best way to cut circles in wood, How to cut circles in wood, Circle cutting jig, Circle cutting, Circle jig, DIY circle cutting jigs, Cutting circles in wood, Bandsaw circle cutting jig, Cutting circles with a bandsaw, Cutting circles with a router, Router circle cutting jig, How to cut circles with a router, Cutting circles on table saw, Table Saw circle cutting jig, Table saw jig for cutting circles, How to cut circles with jigsaw, DIY Montreal

Id: NqDzmlhrmJA

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Zyker]

This is exactly what I needed. I'm in the process of making a 30" lazy susan and was trying too decide on the best jig for the job.

[u/Thecardinal74]

this is the kind of stuff I subscribed to this sub for.

thank you

[u/bassegio]

Awesome vid. Thank you!! Great shop also!!!!!

[u/webchimp32]

Marius Hornberger has a good video on an adjustable router jig where the router is free to rotate so the cable doesn't get tangled.

Also an adjustable bandsaw circle jig.

[u/NecroJoe]

I made this yesterday. https://i.imgur.com/Qyb1RA2.jpg

Cut the outside on my table saw using a similar "jig". Then I cut a throgh-hole with a drill hole-saw. Then I took a wide flush trim bit, took off it's larger bearing, and replaced it with the bearing from a smaller bit, running the bearing along the inside edge of the through-hole, to create the step-in.

[u/Lord_OM_of_T]

Really cool and informative video!

[u/tonytastey]

I've been making Crokinole boards since August and I've gone through a fair number or router bits cutting the damn things out with a circle jig. Never even occurred to me to try and do it on a table saw! I might have to give that shit a try ...

[u/danauns]

Really good, thanks!

[u/GreasyPeter]

I know people that do peicework for OSB and plywood shear and flush-trim bits are what they use to cut out the door and window holes. Just blow through the entire wall (don't have to stop and measure out the door and window holes and then cut them with a Skilsaw) and cut out the holes with a router, it's pretty slick.