Fully adjustable circle router jig

[Billysan]

I thought I'd post this for anyone thinking of making a jig for circle cutting with a router. After leaving the local home center disappointed with my choices and or prices, I did some quick research online and saw two takes on home-made "jasper jigs". Not wanting to spend the money on something that gets used so little, and needing/wanting diameter options that most jigs don't offer (I have to cut three different size holes for just this one project, 4", 5" & 8") I worked up the plans for the doomahicky you see attached. I decided to use only stuff I had around. Some 3/4" particle board with melamine on both sides I felt would do the trick. At least for the first version to get through this project. A sturdier version is already in discussion. The stud is a hex head bolt with the head cut off. The bottom washer had to be slightly reamed out to clear the threads but stop at the smooth part of the bolt. In any case it worked like a charm. To adapt it to your router you just have to increase/decrease the "base plate" area (matching your original plate size) and drill the proper mounting holes. Oh, make sure you route the slot large enough to accommodate full range of the holes you need to cut. Measure from the center of the stud to the OUTSIDE MOST EDGE OF THE BIT REGARDLESS OF THE SIZE OF THE BIT. Okay, get to it.

[Mark W.]

Cool I have just the oppisite needs I want to make a Platter using my router to do the cutting. So what I'm going to do is using my router table find the pivot point for a 11 7/8" diameter circle and then at that point using my drill press I will drill a 1/4" D hole in a piece of MDF mounted on the table I can then use this to slip a platter blank (rough cut to about 12" D on my band saw) I figure I should be able to get a perfectly round platter with a perfectly centered bearing based on the 1/4" hole.

I'll be using this to make Seaboard Platters for some RCM's I'm going to be building.

[thefragger]

Very very nice!

Now I can stop trying to follow a compassed line with a jigsaw!

[treserious]

Originally Posted by Mark W.

Cool I have just the oppisite needs I want to make a Platter using my router to do the cutting. So what I'm going to do is using my router table find the pivot point for a 11 7/8" diameter circle and then at that point using my drill press I will drill a 1/4" D hole in a piece of MDF mounted on the table I can then use this to slip a platter blank (rough cut to about 12" D on my band saw) I figure I should be able to get a perfectly round platter with a perfectly centered bearing based on the 1/4" hole.

I'll be using this to make Seaboard Platters for some RCM's I'm going to be building.

for making round pieces, I saw a trick on some home improvement show on the web using a table saw.

if you will be making many, and you have a table saw, it may be worth it to put a jig like this together.


http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-...-a-table-saw-2

[butch4695]

nice job billysan !

[thefragger]

Originally Posted by treserious

for making round pieces, I saw a trick on some home improvement show on the web using a table saw.

if you will be making many, and you have a table saw, it may be worth it to put a jig like this together.


http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-...-a-table-saw-2

THAT'S really cool!!!

I like how he made that whole sliding work surface for the table saw.

[Andyman]

I made one similar to that out of a scrap of 1/4" flooring to cut the circles for my speaker cabs. One trick I used was to NOT screw the router down, but to use a bushing mounted to the plate and a hole in the guide. That way the router is free to turn on the guide and you don't find the handles in awkward positions and have to dance around with it.
It worked like a charm. I'll post pics later today as I need to use it again to cut an updated motorboard for my 2nd prototype as I prefer the clean round cut of the router to my "round" jigsaw cut of the current motorboard.

[westend]

My effort is this 1/8" acrylic job. I drill a small hole at the center described line and use a small finish nail to operate as the spindle. As you can see, I have cut an opening for the router bit and the mounting screws are left taped to the jig. Basically, this is a Jasper jig but it will work for large and small cutouts so you don't have to buy two jigs. Cost= $0.00 (lying around in the shop) Time to make= 2 hrs..

[Mark W.]

The table saw jig is interesting. BUT that is extremely dangerous my high school shop teacher would have had a COW. cutting those corners off like that would be so easy for the piece to kick back. And having watched my cousin cutting a glued up pice for a chess board in Sophomore wood shop one day have a kick back and the resulting piece of walnut about 3" square passing past his head to hit the block wall 40 feet behind him hard enough to chip a little of the cement block off I'll pass on that type of jig.


what it takes him dozens of cuts to do a router jig will do in a single pass even from a square and it will leave a perfectly smooth surface. The angled cut of the cicular blade will not be as smooth.

I do how ever like the sliding table and might be working on one of them next time I have a little shop time to spare.

[Mark W.]

PS. you should have seen the huge jig I made to be able to cut 16 foot diameter arcs in 3/4" OSB to use them for cement forms. I had a pivot set up on an outboard table to my 14" bandsaw and was able to turn 2 sheets of OSB into dozens of pieces of 3" wide arcs that when I nailed 1/4" OSB inbetween made solid curved cement forms for the elabrate curved curbing we have around the walkway and flower beds in the front yard.

[Billysan]

Originally Posted by Mark W.

PS. you should have seen the huge jig I made to be able to cut 16 foot diameter arcs in 3/4" OSB to use them for cement forms. I had a pivot set up on an outboard table to my 14" bandsaw and was able to turn 2 sheets of OSB into dozens of pieces of 3" wide arcs that when I nailed 1/4" OSB inbetween made solid curved cement forms for the elabrate curved curbing we have around the walkway and flower beds in the front yard.

I saw Norm (NYW) do that exact thing for a large round table top he was making. That was so cool and so simple. I've kept that idea in the back of my mind in case I ever need it.

[thefragger]

Originally Posted by Billysan

I saw Norm (NYW) do that exact thing for a large round table top he was making. That was so cool and so simple. I've kept that idea in the back of my mind in case I ever need it.

Norm makes everything look easy.

[westend]

Originally Posted by thefragger

Norm makes everything look easy.

He does but remember, the guy has a staff of people, oodles of TV money, and time to do just a couple of things a day.

Now that I've ripped on him, I will say, he's a great craftsman and even a better teacher.
The New Yankee Worksop series was Norm's baby and I used to watch it every week. He got across a lot of woodworking in a half an hour. It wasn't like most of the present shows, " and now Justin will cut a coffee table" with a guy cutting with a miter saw for 3 seconds and walks around the corner with 20 odd table parts. Norm took the time to show viewers how he made a certain intricate cut and how things were done. Just awesome.
I still have some of the plans that he sold from that show.
I've read Norm's book, too. He wrote one about the building of his house, in MA.. During the later phases of construction, he fell from a ladder and covers that in the book. Made the guy seem all that much more real to me.

[Andyman]

Just a quick pic of my simple jig and the nice clean hole it cut. The pen tip is pointing to the brad hole that centered the radius. I can cut any radius I want simply by relocating the brad along the scribed center line.

[thisOne]

Originally Posted by Andyman

Just a quick pic of my simple jig and the nice clean hole it cut. The pen tip is pointing to the brad hole that centered the radius. I can cut any radius I want simply by relocating the brad along the scribed center line.

Jig of the year award