For sending this issue’s
Top Shop Tip, Keith
receives a vise and four
24 " parallel-jaw clamps
from Jorgenson, a
$340 value.
½" Baltic
birch base
¼" dowel rod
¾" long
Inner
rail
Steel rod to
fit router base
3/8" 16-tpi
bolt for fine
adjustment
¼" 20-tpi
bolt
18 WOOD magazine October 2019
Tips earn up
to $150.
If your tip is the best of the issue,
it wins Top Shop Tip honors,
and you receive a tool prize worth
at least $300.
Send your tip, photos or drawings,
and contact info to
[email protected]
Because we try to publish original tips,
please send yours only to WOOD® magazine.
continued on page 20
TOP
SHOP
TIP
SHOP TIPS
WORK FASTER, SMARTER, SAFER
Unlike most shop-made circle cutters, this
one has no limit to how small the cut circle
can be, incorporates a fine adjustment, and
doesn’t require removing the router’s subbase.
And it’s easy to make!
Build the jig as shown, but leave off the
dowel rod (used as a pivot point) for now.
Neither the bolts that hold the rods nor the
Simple circle-routing jig runs rings around other trammels
fine-adjustment bolt require inserts. Simply
drill their pilot holes, then put drops of instant
glue into the holes and allow the glue to cure
before tapping the holes. The threaded holes
will hold up in a dense hardwood such as oak.
After installing a^1 ∕ 4 " upcut spiral router bit,
attach the jig to the router, slide the router
against the inner rail, and plunge-rout a hole
completely through the base. Glue the
dowel into the hole.
To use the jig, insert the dowel into a^1 ∕ 4 "
hole^1 ∕ 4 " deep in your workpiece. Turn the
fine-adjustment bolt to dial in a stop the
exact diameter of the circle to be cut,
knowing that one full bolt turn equals^1 ∕ 16 ".
—Keith Kroma, Menomonie, Wis.