Circles

[Toolman56]

Hi, okay how you cut those perfect circle's, due a hand injury mine always comes out egg shape, what's the sercert ? As of now i went looking and found out the hard way, there's is no jiggs for a scrollsaw for that or anything , so i'm building one for that,Everett.

[Mick Walker]

Everett, I draw the circle with a compass, cut just outside the line then sand to the line.

[Pajaro]

My thoughts exactly. Same way with out side curves

[Wood Dog]

Toolman56 just in case you wanted to use a table saw to cut your circles check out this video. YouTube - Cut a Circle on a Table Saw

[scrolling_grandma]

Loved the table saw idea. That was pretty cool.

[Toolman56]

ya thats was neet trick on the table saw

[lucky788scroller]

Ive cut circles on the tablesaw and it worked out well. Placenent of the axis in relation to the blade are critical to getting a nice circle, especially if cutting a 38 inch dia circle in 1 1/2 inch thick cherry tabletop. I'll see if I can find any pictures to post.
As for cutting them on a scrollsaw, cutting them perfect is probably never going to happen, but its possible to get them close, it just takes practice, the right circumstances, and a little luck. If I were to cut out the centr of this o I would drill my entry hole on the inside, and begin my cut angling towards my line I want to cut gradually getting myself to the line. Call me crazy or not, but it works best to get yourself lined up to your pattern line when cutting this to be cutting as I call it, down grain.What I mean is you are cutting in the same direction as the grain and at the point where you reach your line for the inside of the o is at the point where the grain is coming out the o at a steep angle. So if your doing the o and your grain is running vertically, you should be getting yourself lined up to meet your pattern line at about the 1 to 2 o'clock or 7 to 8 o'clock location, and continue flowing around your cut as one continuous motion if at all possible.As you near your starting point of cut inside the o hold the waste part in its place firmly against the blade as you cut to the end.The little pressure sideways on the blade with the waste part of the circle as you near the end will help keep the blade cutting where its supposed to instead of it trying to jump to the path of least resistance. Cutting direction as I described is cutting the inside out of a circle in a clockwise cutting direction (wood turning counter-clockwise)Its much easier to show this than to explain it, so just practice.To cut the outside of the ois pretty much the same way , using the grains direction to dictate my starting point. Hopefully that made some sense, but practice is the key.

[Toolman56]

yes it did thankyou very much

[Gill]

I always cut circles with a router on a trammel bar.

Gill

[SNAPPER]

Tablesaw trick is cool. One tool I never thought of for cutting circles.
Dean