Bandsaw limitations - my skills, my machine, adjustment...?

By the way, I have a scrollsaw and a new Bosh jigsaw that I could use for the same thing, but the reason I have the bandsaw is for convenience – it’s set up all the time unlike the others.

By the by the way, he has a sliding table for his bandsaw, but he doesn’t slide it when he’s cutting the circle.

You need a 3/16” or 1/4” blade to be able to cut a small radius. A 3/8” is too large a blade for cutting tight circles. If you made a band saw circle cutting jig w/ incriment settings. you could cut any size hole from say 4” up to 24 or even 48” circles. Go to my projects page and check out my b.s. circle cutting jig. There are many on this sight and Youtube…..! Look at the video again…..that guy is using either a 3/16” or 1/4’ blade…it’s hard to tell exactly….!!

-- " There's a better way.....find it"...... Thomas Edison.

You do need a smaller blade as Rick mentioned and you can build a jig to do the perfect circle. His sliding table looks to be an add-on. I made a similar jig that does perfect circles of almost any size you want. Very handy.

Great, thanks for the replies.

I like that circle jig, Rayne!

You know what? I just looked at it again after watching the video about the circle jig, and I realized that the guy in my video has the center of his circle moored in a similar way! He’s not doing that freehand.

Okay, I feel less inept now.

I forgot to post a picture of my band saw cutting jig I made couple of years ago. It’s simple, easy to use, and basically my own design…....here is a picture…..

-- " There's a better way.....find it"...... Thomas Edison.

Another couple of pictures…I made a stop on the front of the jig to limit the travel so as not to go past where the band saw blade needs to stop…..!! The miter bar slides in the miter on the saw…!!

-- " There's a better way.....find it"...... Thomas Edison.

Looks good, Rick – easy and

Yeah, I’m planning to make a simplified version of the jigs shown above (the YouTube ones). Yours is pretty much in line with what I was thinking, only I won’t use Al, I’ll just use a piece of scrap maple.

(My lazy approach to jigs is to make them functional rather than taking the time to be elegant. If you saw my crosscut sled you’d see what I mean – a piece of plywood on top of two hardwood rails, with vertical boards attached to the front and rear. No safety double wood where the blade goes, no fancy handles, no permanent clamping hardware… and I fully intend to be just as crude here.)

Hah. I posted before finishing my sentence.

It’s the drugs. They’re really good.