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!