How to make a round hole in plywood. How to cut an even circle, having only a circular saw from tools. Sink insert according to the template

Plywood (and to a lesser extent other sheet materials such as chipboard or oriented strand board) has significant decorative potential. Sufficient if available a simple tool and certain skills, you can cut almost anything from plywood.
But in order for the details obtained as a result of such a carving to look presentable enough, the master should have a few tricks in stock. It is about them that we will talk in our article.

Getting started with sheet materials, many craftsmen have an idea only of how to cut in a straight line. 'Cause the question is how to cut even circle from plywood, many can confuse. Indeed, ordinary or circular saw fail to cope with the task.
Figured cutting is most often done using the following tools:

• The simplest device that is used for sawing. With the help of a jigsaw, even the most delicate work can be done by hand, but it is practically not suitable for thick material or long cuts.
• Jigsaws. Here you can use two types of devices:
  • ordinary, with a vertically located file;
  • artistic, in which the role of the cutting element is performed by a steel sheet.

Ordinary electric jigsaws will come in handy when working with thick. But if you are looking for a way to cut letters out of plywood or make others complex elements(for example details children's constructor), then it is best to use a model with a band saw.

Advice! Naturally, for each type of jigsaw, there are several types of files and blades. Right choice cutting element is necessary condition High Quality products.

• In addition to jigsaws for a curved cut, you can use a furniture router. Despite all the complexity in management, in terms of the quality of the holes made, it is many times superior to most models of plywood saws. With the help of a milling cutter, you can.

Also, do not forget about improvised devices, but we will talk about their use in the appropriate section.

Cutting from plywood has several nuances that the master needs to consider:

• Firstly, you can only cut on dry material. High humidity leads to an increase in the resistance of plywood, therefore, with excessive force, either the veneer will begin to delaminate, or the file will break.
• Change saw or cutting blade should be done as soon as the first signs of dullness appear.
• If we are cutting plywood with a jigsaw, then in order to get cleaner edges, the main cut lines should be placed along the grain of the veneer. But with hand saws it is easier to work across the fiber: there will be a few more chips, but there is less risk of pinching the file or moving it away from the intended line.

Advice! When transferring patterns for cutting from plywood to a blank, try to place the template in such a way that the elements to be removed fall into areas with defects: knots, chips, spots, etc.

Curly cutting technologies

jigsaw

As we noted above, a jigsaw will come in handy if we are looking for how to cut a word out of plywood or make other parts of a complex shape:

• We transfer pre-printed drawings or templates to the workpiece using carbon paper.

• If there are through sections in the structure, we do thin drill starting holes.
• We insert a file or a jigsaw blade into the hole. We fix the free end of the file with a fixing screw or clamp.
• We make a cut along the intended line, pressing the workpiece to the workbench. The saw moves either automatically (for electric curly jigsaws) or manually.

After all the arc elements are propylene, we remove unnecessary sections and process the finished part with a file or sandpaper.

Frazier

A furniture router is great for cutting thick plywood. Certainly, complex shape you can’t make it with it, but cutting an arc or a circle is easy:

• We fix the standard ruler, which is part of the router, in the center of the circle with a self-tapping screw.
• If the length of the ruler is not enough, you can assemble a simple bracket from metal profile or wooden planks.
• By rotating the cutter along a fixed radius, we select the groove along the circumference, resulting in an almost perfect hole.

Note! When calculating the diameter of the circle, the dimensions of the working cutter should be taken into account. The instructions for the device will tell you the exact numbers.

In this way, you can cut not only circles, but also individual arcs - for example, in order to make grooves for furniture brackets.

improvised means

For curly elements, it is desirable to have special devices, but to do about round hole in a glued veneer board, any craftsman may need it. Below we will tell you how to cut a circle out of plywood when there is nothing at hand.
Well, almost nothing:

• For plywood cutting, a wooden plank with two nails is used.
• One nail is driven through the bar into the workpiece, exactly in the center of the hole being made.
• We drive the second nail into the plank in such a way that the point comes out on the wrong side by at least 5-10 mm. The distance from the first nail should be equal to the radius of the hole being made.
• Rotating the bar, draw a furrow on the plywood with a point, deepening it with each turn.
• Instead of a stick, you can use a strong cord. The principle of operation remains unchanged.

The sharper the nail used, the faster the hole will be made.
It should be noted that although the price of such a device is low, it should be used only when other methods are not available: the edges still turn out to be far from ideal.

Similar content

Often there are questions about how to cut a circle with a jigsaw, since many craftsmen are only faced with straight cuts of the material. But sawing out varying degrees curvilinearity only at first glance seems complicated.

For cutting you will need:

• jigsaw;
• plywood or other material;
• files special purpose depending on the material;
• marker;
• sample;
• working surface;
• clamp.

Exist various ways. You can cut a circle with both a manual and a mechanical jigsaw. Hand tool is a simpler device than an electric one. It is not suitable for thick layers of material and for long cuts. Jigsaws are divided into ordinary and artistic. The difference between them is in the location of the file: in the usual case, the file is located vertically, and in the artistic case, the role of the file is performed by a steel sheet. Ordinary jigsaw can be cut into thick plywood, for the manufacture of headboards or other furniture. Art can cut out complex elements, letters, puzzle pieces.

Cutting blades are varied for each type of jigsaw, and you need to select them according to the material with which you are working.

How to cut plywood with a jigsaw?

Before you cut a circle out of plywood, you should remember a few general advice to work with this material. Sawing can only be done on dry material. Wet plywood has increased resistance, and when sawn, the veneer will begin to peel, which will lead to damage to the file or even the entire tool in the case of electric models. At the first sign that the teeth are not sharp enough or some part of the blade is bent, the file should be replaced.

When sawing plywood with an electric jigsaw, it is necessary, if possible, to place the main cutting lines along the veneer fibers.

This will promote clean cut edges. When working with a manual jigsaw, it is easier to cut across the fibers. This will not protect against chips, but there will be less chance that the file will pinch or it will go along the chip away from the intended line.

Before cutting out a circle, you need to transfer its contours to plywood. At the same time, it is necessary to try to ensure that areas with defects, chips, spots and knots fall outside the cut contour. You can transfer the outline to plywood by tracing it through carbon paper, cutting out a paper outline for a stroke, or simply draw a circle of the desired radius with a compass. If necessary, the starting hole in the plywood is made using a thin drill.

To cut a circle with a jigsaw, a canvas is inserted into the hole. The free end of the manual model is again fixed in place with a clamp or a fixing screw. The workpiece is pressed against the workbench with clamps, the cut is made according to the transferred line. When the circle closes central element is separated from the sheet and the edges are processed sandpaper or a file.

Before cutting with a jigsaw with an electric motor, you need to install a narrow file on it. There is a special improvement for this tool, called a circle cutter, it is installed in the center and work begins. When working on the tool, do not press, this does not contribute to a faster move. As a result of pressure, the jigsaw file and even its fasteners can bend and break. If the circle to be sawn has a small radius, it is better to do the work in several passes, as sharp turns can break and bend the blade.

All photos from the article

Fans of all kinds of needlework should definitely pay attention to this kind of arts and crafts, like cutting on plywood. In this way, you can make all kinds of figures, patterns and other decorative elements.

Moreover, it is quite simple to master such a technique, the only thing is that you first need to familiarize yourself with its main nuances, which we will do below.

What do you need to cut

First of all, consider what tool you need for this. It should be said right away that expensive plywood cutting equipment is not required. Therefore, anyone can do this kind of work.

The only thing you need to prepare the following tool:

• jigsaw;
• electric drill and brace;
• scissors;
• cardboard templates;
• needle files.

In the photo - a manual jigsaw

In addition, various expendable materials, such as the:

• sandpaper, for grinding saw cut places;
• tracing paper;
• the pencils;
• glue;
• acrylic paints, etc.

In addition, it is necessary to prepare workplace. Since working with any wood materials implies the presence of sawdust and unnecessary scraps, it is advisable to equip the workplace not in a residential area, but, for example, in a garage.

The workplace itself is a table. It is advisable to attach a stand for a jigsaw to it, which can be made from a plank. It is also necessary to ensure good local lighting workplace.

Cutting Features

Material selection

As you know, plywood is a multilayer material that consists of several layers of veneer. This makes it great for creativity.

The only thing you need to choose the right type of plywood. To do this, you need to pay attention to the following parameters:

What to cut

As a rule, people who encounter such work for the first time are interested in what can be cut out of plywood?

There are a lot of options - these can be:

• patterns for decorating furniture or other interior elements;
• panel on the wall;
• decorative inscriptions;
• all kinds of figurines, toys for children, etc.

Advice! You can also make functional carved objects from plywood, for example, caskets, candlesticks, napkin holders, lamps and much more.

Of course, you should start by cutting out the most simple products to "get your hands on it". After gaining experience, you can take on work of any complexity.

cutting process

After preparing the workplace and materials, we proceed directly to the cutting itself.

The instructions for doing this work look like this:

1. First of all, you need to make an image of the future product. You can make them yourself, or find them online and print them out. It must be said that templates must be prepared even before cutting out words from plywood with simple outlines, as this will greatly simplify the work and increase its quality.

You can also prepare templates of simple geometric shapes in advance. different sizes to, for example, quickly cut a circle out of plywood or a square;

1. then the images should be transferred to cardboard, for example, using carbon paper;
2. now you need to cut out templates from cardboard;
3. further prepared templates must be placed on a plywood sheet and circled with a pencil. If the pattern is large enough, it can be fixed with tape or even glue;
4. now let's start cutting. If you need to cut the edge of plywood beautifully, giving it smooth shapes, you can use a jigsaw. More subtle and hard work, for example, small openwork patterns should be cut with a manual jigsaw.

To make internal cuts, you must first drill a hole. Depending on the subtlety of the work, for this you can use an electric drill or a brace;

1. after cutting is completed, it is necessary to process the saw cuts with sandpaper. To correct the lines, you can use needle files;
2. then the product must be sanded. If it consists of several parts, they must be glued, for example, with PVA or wood glue.

Advice! Novice craftsmen are often interested in experts - how to cut an even circle out of plywood? In fact, there are no secrets in this operation, the main thing is to correctly apply a circle to the material using a template or a compass, and then carefully and slowly cut it out with a jigsaw.

This completes the cutting process. Now the product can be decorated - painted with paints, applied with a burner or simply varnished.

Advice! Word templates for plywood cutting can be prepared in a text editor such as Word. This will allow you to select the most suitable size and font.

Here, in fact, are all the main nuances of this work.

Conclusion

Sawing plywood with a jigsaw is a much simpler task than, for example, woodcarving. Therefore, in order to achieve good results It doesn't take years to master the skill. You just need to do the work carefully, adhering to the above recommendations.

The video in this article contains Additional information on the given topic. If some points are not clear to you, you can leave your questions in the comments, and we will be happy to answer them.

When working with various types wood, you always need to know the detailed variations in its processing. Before you cut a circle in plywood, you need to know all the options, because you often have to adapt to the situation. There are many options for performing such an undertaking, and they differ dramatically.

In order to cut a circle out of plywood, you can use both professional tools, and improvised means.

Power tools or hand tools?

Tools and materials:

• drill;
• jigsaw;
• jigsaw manual;
• milling machine;
• nails;
• rope;
• chisel;
• a hammer;
• stationery knife;
• sandpaper;
• compass.

When determining the diameter of the future circle, it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the working cutter.

The most popular option among all is the electric jigsaw. This tool allows you to cut not only circles, but also any other geometric figures. Its only disadvantage is the need to form additional grooves at the corners (corners), but this is not noticeable when creating a circle. It is very important to choose the right nail file, because. they are of 3 types: tears on the left, tears on the right, tears on 2 sides. After the canvas is selected, cut out a circle of any size.

Jigsaw ordinary manual. Before cutting a circle out of plywood using this tool, you need to make sure that the workflow is available. The main difficulty is the limitation (usually up to 30 cm) due to the physical structure, i.e. in deep places won't work. At the start work activities not from the edge, but directly from the center, the nail file is refueled as a last resort.

Milling machine. Very convenient option, but requiring a rigid hitch with the surface, for which a self-tapping screw is screwed into the center of the circle. The circle is made of any diameter, and very quickly. Sometimes there is not enough working handle, because of which you have to make all kinds of improvised brackets, which can be a channel, a profile, a bar, a board and even a rope, but it is much more convenient on a rigid hitch. This tool makes a fairly wide hole, so before starting work, you need to carefully measure the future design.

It is necessary to choose only sharp nails, and process the edges of the resulting workpiece with coarse sandpaper.

Nails. A very popular way in cases where the work should be done "already yesterday", and the tools will not be soon. It should be noted right away that the work in the end is quite rough, so it is used as a last resort. All you need is a hammer, 2 nails and a rope. One nail is driven in in the center of the hole, and the other is pulled on the rope to the required length (radius), after which a circle is drawn with a firm movement. Such circles with pressure continue until the circle is finally cut. At the very end, the nail is removed from the hole, turned over and carefully upholstered with a hammer to achieve a more accurate seam.

Chisel and stationery knife. Everything is much simpler here, because first you need to draw a circle with a compass (pencil), after which this circle is circled several times with a clerical knife under pressure. A feature of the stroke is the movement of not a knife, but a sheet of plywood, so as not to break the metal, and this action is repeated from 2 sides. Then a chisel is applied to the prepared seam and brought to the opposite seam with gentle blows (2-3 blows are usually enough). At the very end, a circle is knocked out with a hammer, as in the variant with nails.

Often the question of how to cut even circles from plywood with a jigsaw confuses novice craftsmen. After all, it is much more difficult to do this than a simple straight cut, no saw will help here.

Most often with a task figured cutting jigsaw helps to cope. Jigsaws are manual and electric. A manual jigsaw consists of a frame with clips for the blade and a handle. Main disadvantages manual jigsaw: low mechanical strength canvases and small size framework. As a result, the blade is often torn and it is impossible to cut at a large indent from the edges of the part. Such jigsaws are usually used for processing wooden products. Electric jigsaws are ordinary, in which the saw is located vertically, and for artistic cutting, where the cutting element is a steel blade. Electric jigsaws usually used when working with thick material.

Key Rules

To make the sawing process simple and fast, you must follow the basic key rules of work:

In order for the edges of the plywood to be even, it is better to cut along the canvas.

• you can only work with dry material, as moisture increases the resistance of the material, as a result of which the veneer may begin to delaminate;
• it is necessary to change the cutting blade immediately after the first signs of blunting of the teeth appear;
• it is better to work with an electric jigsaw along the fibers of the material, so the edges will be more even;
• with a hand jigsaw it is necessary to cut across the fibers of the veneer.

To work safely, you must adhere to the following recommendations:

• firmly fasten the sawing table and saw blade in the frame;
• the jigsaw must be with serviceable and well-fitted handles;
• you should not press too hard on the jigsaw, trying to "help" it, this will only lead to faster blunting of the working blade;
• straight and long cuts are best done with a wide blade, so the sawing process will go faster;
• it is necessary to always see the markings, so the sawdust from the material being cut must be removed by hand, in no case should it be blown off, as they can get into the eyes.

Compliance with these simple rules will help a beginner learn how to cut circles with a jigsaw and facilitate his work.

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Cutting instructions

Before starting work, you need to drill a hole in the plywood for the jigsaw blade.

To cut even circles with a jigsaw quickly and beautifully, it is not necessary to be an expert in this field, but for a beginner it can be a very difficult task. In this case, the main thing is patience and, of course, the availability of the necessary accompanying tools, such as the jigsaw itself, a file, compasses, a simple pencil and surface polishing devices.

The first thing to do is to draw a circle on the surface of the material you will be working with. It is best to use a compass or choose a suitable circle and circle. It is necessary to trace with a pencil so that traces of it can be erased in the future.

If it is necessary to cut a circle inside the surface, then a through starting hole should be made. Next, you need to insert a jigsaw blade or file into this hole and fix the free end of the file with a clamp. Cutting is recommended in a sitting position. First of all, you need to fix the file in the jigsaw with a key, while keeping in mind that the teeth of the file should be pointing down. It is necessary to cut in the direction from top to bottom. The tool should be held level to avoid nicks and bevels.

The main thing in this process is not to rush and cut smoothly without sudden movements.

In the process of sawing, it is necessary to take small breaks, as the file can overheat and break. Here is the circle and ready. Now it is recommended to align the edges with a file, erase the markings left by the pencil and polish the part. Can be varnished if necessary.

Of course, it requires some skill and skills, but everything comes with experience. Therefore, following the recommendations described above should help the novice master in mastering this interesting and exciting activity.