Circle Cutting

I was going to do some more interesting cutting, but my scroll saw is on it's last leg, so I'm off this afternoon to buy a new one.

In the meantime, I thought I'd set up a jig for cutting the idler and spool wheels with a bandsaw.

First, I took a piece of scrap plywood big enough to span the distance from the bandsaw blade to the parallel groove in the table, then I attached a thin strip of scrap wood to the bottom of the plywood along with another scrap to act as a stop and slid it into the sawblade to make a reference cut.

I then took a square and marked a line even with the leading edge of the blade. I marked this off with the idler wheel diameter measurement (2 1/2"), and the spool wheel measurement (3 3/4"), and then drilled a small hole at the centerpoint of each diameter (1 1/4", and 1 7/8" respectively). 

From the bottom of the jig, I inserted a nail to act as a pin or axle for the 1/4" hardwood stock I was going to cut. I realized I had to also drill out enough room on the bottom of the jig to make sure the nailhead was recessed.

I then drilled a small hole in the stock to fit it on top of the nail "axle", then started the saw, slid the jig up to its stop and turned the stock into the blade to make the wheel.

I opted to go for hardwood, as I have a huge pile of dense dry hardwood, and I didn't like the idea of using plywood for the wheels - I'm not particularly fond of plywood in general, although I realize it's necessary at times.

Here's a short video of the cutting in action:

I promise I'll have a more interesting post tomorrow!