My Video - Circle Cutting on the router table

[John Nixon]

Circle cutting -

I came up with what I feel is a pretty straightforward and simple method for those of us with a miter track on the router table.

I made a video that illustrates the point:
goto -
www.eagleLakeWoodworking.com

and look for the link to the video in the upper right-hand corner.

Let me know what you think...

John Nixon
Buffalo, NY

[Larry Turner]

Nice video. I emailed you to see if you would share details on making this jig and pivot ruler

[John Nixon]

Nice video. I emailed you to see if you would share details on making this jig and pivot ruler

I got your email Larry. Thanks for checking it out; I'm glad you liked the concept.

Take a look at this picture (if you haven't already):
http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/...eExplained.htm

That graphic attempts to explain the layout of the scale. I'll try a little more explanation here -

If you use the Pythagorean theorem, you can solve for the unknown side of a right triangle. In this case, the unknown is the base of the triangle (Side 2 in the graphic). In other words, the unknown is the distance the pivot point should be away from the right angle of the triangle in order to make a hypotenuse of desired size (the radius). I wrote a program that creates the scale with increments that represent the placement of the pivot point for a given radius.

The program I wrote was in VB that created the ruler in Word. It crossed more than one page, so it was spliced when I glued it on. I make most of my ruled stuff this way - print it on index stock, glue it on with yellow glue and spray it with some polyurethane. Seems to work well, and I can customize the layout of the rule / scale.

I'm sure I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this...so feel free to ask for clarification. I'm sure I can explain it better. The end result is great though...dead on accurate.

Thanks,
John Nixon
Buffalo, NY

[Sam Chambers]

John:

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed exploring your web site. I'm curious about the dust collection on your router table. All the photos show the dust collector attached to the fence, but it's nowhere to be seen in the circle cutting video. How did you capture the dust in the video?

[John Nixon]

Hi Sam. I have the low portion of the router table enclosed with another collection line to there. This combined with the spiral upcut bit, all the dust and chips are sucked downward and out the bottom.

Here's a pic that should help illustrate my setup.

[Sam Chambers]

Thanks for the pic, John! I've been thinking of something similar for my router table, and this gives me a few ideas.

[John Nixon]

Thanks for the pic, John! I've been thinking of something similar for my router table, and this gives me a few ideas.

Somewhere along the line, I realized I needed both the lower and the upper collection. The collection on the fence is very powerful, yet there were operations that just spewed dust all over the floor beneath my router. The lock miter bit for instance - I figured the fence collection would grab most of what comes out of that bit (since it's half enclosed in the fence). Nope, that bit threw more dust on the floor than anywhere.

The moral of the story is that you really need to enclose the lower portion of your router and use either or both dust ports to control the dust. I recommend the plexiglass door too...it's kind of neat to see the stuff flying around in there.

Thanks for checking out my site Sam...I'm glad you liked it.

John Nixon,
Buffalo, NY