81 - Ultimate Sharpening Station, страница 30

HANDS-ON f

Technique _v

A circle cutter makes quick work of cutting holes or disks of just about any size.

getting great results with a

Circle Cutter

Cutting a large, circular hole is a challenge. You can try to find a Forstner bit the right size. But if you have more than a couple different sizes to drill, that can get expensive. And it's impossible to find a Forstner bit any larger than 4". The solution — a simple circle cutter.

How It Works. As you can see in the photo above, a circle cutter,

or wing cutter as it's sometimes called, looks quite a bit different from most other drill bits. And it works differently as well. You can see what I'm talking about in the left drawing below.

Instead of a cutting edge that removes all the waste to form a hole, a circle cutter only cuts a narrow, circular groove through the workpiece.

cutting a disk w

NOTE: flip

CUTTER END FOR END

beveled , edge faces (a away from 1 ^vn pilot bit

waste

1 '

To do this, there's a cutter attached to the end of an adjustable arm. It's the arm that allows you to set the cutter for a wide range of sizes (see photo on opposite page and refer to sources on page 51). Note: Circle cutters have a maximum depth of cut of about ³U".

Holes & Wheels. There is one thing I should mention at this point. When you're shopping for a circle cutter, you'll find two types, like the ones at the top of the opposite page.

The cutter on the left does a good job cutting holes. But if you need to cut both holes and disks (or wheels), you'll want to consider the circle cutter on the right.

You might be asking yourself, "If I cut a hole, doesn't that leave me with a disk once I'm done?" That's true, but the disk will have a rough edge and ridge of waste on the bottom that isn't completely cut free.

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ShopNotes No. 81