Review and photos by Andrew Potocnik
I’ve seen home-made circle cutting devices that make cutting discs on a bandsaw easy and eliminate marking centres and tedious set-up, but this is the first commercially made jig that has truly excited me about the whole process.
The jig is quick to assemble from the box, easy to install on your bandsaw and accurately machined so all components slide into place locking tight with minimal effort, requiring nothing more than the allen key provided.
First, you adjust the sliding scale that allows you to set the size of circle you plan to cut. Unfortunately, the scale provided is in imperial, something the American makers could easily replace for the broader world market to use.
Once set up, all you need to do is centre punch your blank, place it on the centre spike that slides along the X/Y carrier, push the blank into the bandsaw’s blade, then, once the carrier snaps into place via a couple of rare earth magnets you simply rotate the blank around the centre spike.
To remove the jig, you just loosen two wing nuts, which are equally easy to use when you next wish to set the jig in place again.
It took me about 10 minutes to set the jig up first go straight out of the box, which is testament to the clear instructional manual which is backed up with easy to follow film clips shown on the company’s website. I didn’t encounter any problems at all and feel that the cost is minimal for the time you save in marking blanks and the accuracy the jig provides.
All in all, I’m really impressed with this product.
Currently available from Gregory Machinery for $128.
Review tool originally supplied by Carroll’s Woodcraft Supplies.
