Circle cutting jig w/ hand jig saw 4 5E3

[angelodp]

I am looking at my options on cutting the circle in the 5E3 cab ( baffle ).
I could have a go with a hand jig saw

Try and make a jig for that jig saw

Borrow a router for a jig.

What works best, has anyone worked out a hand jig saw rig.

Thats the most handy tool at the moment.

A

[tubeswell]

I use a little hand-held jigsaw without any sort of jig - works fine - just go slowly around and take your time

[GibsonLover]

Get close to your line with a jig saw, and clean up the edge with a small sanding drum on your drill or drill press. Looks sweet.

[stingray_65]

I haven't tried to cut a perfect circle in years with a jig saw.(since i bought a router)

some of the techniques I use for compound curves : (which will aplly here)

never go outside the line. That is to say keep your saw on the inside of your circle you scribed, keep the scribe line between you and your saw so that you can clearly see your line. work right to left (if your are right handed). you cannot see thru the blade, don't allow your "minds eye" to "see" the line.


to finish the rough shape you've cut, wrap a fairly coarse sandpaper on a round sanding block. for an 8" circle and above, use a straight sided glass, or something about 4" in diameter

sand only to your scribeline.believe it or not it's fairly easy to deliberatly sand halfway thru the thickness of a pencil line


Ray

***EDIT***

It's nice to have a "perfect" circle, but you cannot see it uless conditions are just right.
if you REALLY needed that perfect circle look and are not happy with the looks you've just created, take a piece of poster board and cut out the circle (must be smaller than the hole you cut, even if its just a hair smaller) with an Xacto knife or scissors. spray the back with adhesive and center it to the hole you just cut. when the glue dries trim the remaining poster board to your baffle size, paint accordingly. if you can see it thru your grill cloth it will give the illusion you need.

[angelodp]

yep

Ok, thats the ticket... thanks

[hasserl]

I've done this quite a few times. The first time I was so happy with my cleverness I took pictures:





It's simple to fabircate a jig from a scrap peice of wood, drill a center hole to locate it & off you go. As mentioned above, you can clean it up with a drill mounted drum sander after you've got it cut.

[PRNDL]

I like that simple jig and craftsman jig saw!!

I've been using a RotoZip that has a special attachment for cutting circles. It works pretty good, although it's slow going through plywood, since the bits are fairly thin and will break.

I used a jig with a router, but the same issue occurs - you have to go real slow otherwise the bit vibrates.

The jig saw with a wood blade is the proper tool, and I'll bet it is plenty fast.

[scole]

the important thing about using that jigsaw jig is to make sure the front of the blade is in line with the center point of the circle. otherwise the saw will want to run off.

[WMThompson]

On my original tweed amps it looks like they used an electric jig saw.
They must have been in a hurry also because whoever cut them out did not seem to care about following the lines too well!
So for orginality I did the same