This is a useful jig that’s also fun. The workpiece turns on the jig’s pivot point and cuts circles and arcs with a wide range of radii. I thread the jig with a 1/4-20 tap, so it will accommodate any size pivot point I care to grind from a bolt. They can range from the full 1/4-in. diameter for heavier pieces, to a needle point for delicate work.

To avoid a center mark on the stock, attach a sacrificial surface to the underside of the workpiece with double-sided tape.

The pivot point is in a sliding arm dovetailed into the body of the jig.

Click to enlarge.

This arm can be moved gently forward while you rotate the stock into the blade, initially creating a spiral-shaped cut.

A stop block clamped to the outboard end of the arm hits the body of the jig when you reach the correct radius, and only then does the blade begin to cut in a circle.

Make the track and sliding arm of a hard and stable wood. The sliding arm and track are dovetailed so that the arm does not tip out of the track, and the bearing surfaces are waxed. The track could be dovetailed directly into the body of the jig, but it is easier and will remain more accurate if a strip of hardwood is dovetailed, then set into a dado.

Keep in mind: The bandsaw blade must be narrow enough to cut the desired radius, and the cutting edge of the teeth must align with the centerline of the pivot point on the sliding arm. If the pivot is forward or back of the teeth, the blade will not cut freely and the circle will not be true.

-Excerpt from Five Essential Bandsaw Jigs, FWW #180

Photos: Marcia Ryan

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