Circle Cutters for the Scroll Saw

[rfielder]

Has anyone tried building a circle cutter for a scroll saw?

I built one for my bandsaw, and it works well.  Was just wondering if the same thing would work on a scroll saw.

It might depend on how the blades cut.  However, that could just be a matter of placing the center of the jig ahead of or behind the blade.

[GLC]

Based on your bandsaw experience, perhaps you could adapt a scheme for the scrollsaw and share your learnings with the blog.   Regards >> GLC in Cypress, Texas

[Gary Beasley]

Pete Marken made a jig for a scrollsaw for cutting rings for vortex bowls. I bought one from him at a symposium but could not find mention of it on his website. You can see the jig in this tutorial. Uses a spiral blade to eliminate tracking issues.

https://f9519b3b-0ada-4cc3-804f-68e688022309.filesusr.com/ugd/e214d3_74fdd5294c3f424bbe484f8832b38900.pdf

[KCSteve]

I know Steve has posted a circle cutting jig but I can't find it in my search.
I did find this post where he shows how to make round wheels by adding a sanding jig - https://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/04/video-demonstration-showing-how-to-make.html

If you want to search, the complete list of posts (which can take a long time to load) is here: http://www.stevedgood.com/sswslist.html

KCSteve :->

[harpolemond]

Hi:  I do a lot of very detailed fret work and cutting circles on the Scroll Saw with a jig definitely saves me time. I can't say I did it all myself.Well, I did make it myself but the pattern is from Steve G.
Yep...good ole' Steve G  ..much thanks for his youtube videos.
   I made this jig from Steves videos.  Simply put...it worked.
I have used it more than once on circles 13 inches wide from edge to edge.   I had to do some slight adapting, but it works fine. 
   a word of caution:  You must of course use spiral cut blades and advancing to quickly, even with the smallest of those blades will damage the edges of nearly any kind of layered wood.  Using solid woods are better that way.  Still if you use spiral blades advancing carefully and slowly around the edge you will get a very good cut.
    I noticed some said they couldn't find that video on youtube so since it is in my favorites, here it is.  I made it and it worked fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaldbryZX9Q
This will work with my Jet 22 and the vac tube attachments do not interfere with clamping

[rfielder]

   a word of caution:  You must of course use spiral cut blades and advancing to quickly, even with the smallest of those blades will damage the edges of nearly any kind of layered wood.

Why are spiral blades required?

If the edge of the circle is in alignment with the cutting edge of the blade, won't that work?  That is how I set the one I built for my bandsaw, and it works quite well.

[harpolemond]

Regular blades face either forward or backward. They do not face left or right when mounted. The Jig Steve made and I use puts the edge of the jig at the blade edge. It turns to the right or left.  Regular blades have no teeth on the right or left.  As the work piece turns it stays in alignment with the blade sideways.  Spiral blades have teeth in a full axis around the blade rather than forward or backward only and Spirals can cut sideways.   So Spiral blades will cut in any direction including around the circle Jig.  Just go a little slower and you will have a near perfect circle with steves Jig.  Link is in previous post.  Simply said. 
       Will try to post a pic of a work in progress. If it works behind the front of the board is a second board stained in barn red to show through the clock. Tolerances had to be extremely close for the edge not to show on the backer board. The Jig helped me do this.  A small Flying Dutchman spiral blade did the cut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaldbryZX9Q

[rustynail]

Here is Pete's jig ..

https://www.petemarkenwoodturning.com/fixtures

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e214d3_3649c34689914e5dbf8095462cb531cf~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_339,h_189,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/20190321_201238_001.webp

[justlarry]

More links for jig:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybv0R15YV6I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-b9VdlMw4