Custom Circle Jig for Dewalt Compact Router

[brettntc]

Hi,

I am fairly new to speaker building and after building my first couple speakers using a jigsaw to cut the circles for my drivers I decided to try to find a circle jig for my Dewalt compact router. After doing some research there are not that many options for my compact router for an circle jig. After looking around at some custom jigs online I decided to use my AutoCad skills to design and then have an acrylic laser cutting company cut me a custom jig for my router. I used 1/4" black acrylic and painted in the letters for easier adjustment. After a few tries it seems to work very well. I have a couple minor tweaks that I make and have a new one made. Please take a look at the attached pictures and let my know what you think about the design.

 

[dchisholm]

This is the same basic design, but at least an order of magnitude more refined, than the jig I showed at

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/construction-tips/247290-cutting-circles-jig-saw-2.html#post3929167

Excellent work!

Dale

 

[dudaindc]

Nice! I need one of those...

 

[chrisb]

nice design and fab work on the jig, but I'd worry about durability of a compact / laminate trim router for machining a high number of speaker cutouts in MDF or plywood any thicker than 1/2"

 

[dchisholm]

. . . I'd worry about durability of a compact / laminate trim router for machining a high number of speaker cutouts in MDF or plywood any thicker than 1/2"

The place where I'm working uses that router - or one very similar to it - in a CNC machine for plastic parts. (Mostly HDPE.) It runs about 30 hours/week, and the router lasts 6-8 months.

I don't have much contact with that CNC machine, but from what I've heard about the "failed" routers, it might be nothing more complicated than replacing the brushes.

Dale

 

[marce]

Very posh, I use an off cut of sheet material screwed to the router bottom and a pin for the pivot point.... I do use a big router with 1/2" tools makes all the difference over smaller routers.

 

[richie00boy]

Nice work. I've been considering getting that or a very similar router as I'm finding the big 1/2 inch one a bit unwieldy.

 

[kuroguy]

i have this router in my CNC router table. it has many hours on it and is, so far, trouble free. I suspect it'll need new brushes in the near future but it has hundreds of hours on it.

bonus: precise bits makes a precision 1/8" collet so you can use 1/8" bits in it too.

 

[marce]

The place where I'm working uses that router - or one very similar to it - in a CNC machine for plastic parts. (Mostly HDPE.) It runs about 30 hours/week, and the router lasts 6-8 months.

I don't have much contact with that CNC machine, but from what I've heard about the "failed" routers, it might be nothing more complicated than replacing the brushes.

Dale

So roughly 720 hours min, for us average Joes that's probably a lifetime of routing. I have a collection of routers, all down to my woodworking hero Norm Abram...

And remember this: there is no more important safety rule than to wear these — safety glasses

 

[Philosophil]

That's a beautiful jig. I'm actually envious. I was looking for a jig for a trim router as well, but they're harder to find.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but are the screws attaching the router completely recessed, or do they protrude a little from the bottom of the jig?

 

[dchisholm]

That's a beautiful jig. I'm actually envious. . . .

The engraved scale on the trammel is the feature that puts this jig far ahead of anything I could ever do on my own. Having the scale on both sides of the slot improves its accuracy and set-ability but I wonder how much would be lost if the scale on one side of the slot was done in metric units, with imperial units on the other side?

(And then, of course, we could add a vernier scale to the pivot-point's bar so we could set a radius down to 1/128" . . . and some detents at common distances, so we could just push the pivot-point into place without looking at the scale . . . and interchangeable scales for use with different router bit diameters, and for routing internal circles (holes) as well as external circles (wheels) . . . . )

Dale