I thought about making a circle guide – aka circle jig – for use with my router. There are plenty of how-to videos on YouTube and it looks easy enough. But I didn’t have time to try and have it fail, so I did some searching on Amazon and landed on this kit from Milescraft.
Why I bought a circle guide kit
I took on an unusual job for my brother-in-law. He wanted an oversized poker table capable of seating 12. The build is detailed in another post (pending). The table would require me to cut several half circles on either end of the table. The diameter of the half circles would range from 15 to 44 inches.
I don’t have any experience with Milescraft, so the name didn’t carry any weight with me. It was the idea of a kit that sold me. There are many other circle jigs on Amazon, and you could make the equivalent of a kit by adding other items, but this was the only kit.
Normally, I shy away from kits because they tend to include things I already have or don’t need. But since this was my first time using a circle guide, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. In that scenario, a kit was kind of appealing.
The Good Stuff
- Accuracy. For this job, it was critical that the table and the rail be cut exactly the same. I needed the diameter to be precisely 44 inches so that the end of the table and the rail mated seamlessly. And they did!
- Ease of use. At first, I was worried about the pivot. It’s just a plastic thing that feels like it has too much play when you fit it into the swing arm. But I soon realized it’s part of what makes the circle guide easy to use.
- Dust control. I didn’t realize it until I started using it, but the base that the router attaches to catches most of the dust created while cutting. It was easy to vacuum sawdust out of the base after each run.
- Edge guide included. After cutting the half circles for the rail at either end, I realized I could also use the router to finish the straight part of the rail. So while it wasn’t my intent at the time of purchase, I ended up using the edge guide and it worked beautifully.
- The safety of buying a kit. As I mentioned, this was my first time cutting half circles where I needed repeatability. I’ve cut plenty of circles using a jigsaw, but I never had to cut two in a row exactly the same. The kit gave me peace of mind because it included everything I needed, even if I didn’t know what I needed. Ask my wife – I’m notorious for making multiple trips to the hardware store because I didn’t know all of the parts I needed to complete a job!
The Bad Stuff
- Set up. The process of centering the router on the base is tedious, but absolutely critical for accuracy. Honestly, I don’t know a better way of handling this, but I know it took me a lot of back and forth with the instructions to get it right.
- Locking mechanism on router base. Once your router is attached to the base, the plate can be easily removed from the rest of the base with a quick twist. There is a spring-loaded pin that locks the plate in place, but it doesn’t fully engage unless you have the plate and base in precise position. I learned the hard way when the router started twisting as I cut.
- Router bit. Again, I don’t have a ton of experience cutting circles with a router, so you’ll have to take this with a grain of salt. I think the bit that was included with the kit was not very good. It did the job, but struggled near the end of each run as it heated up. I’ll have to try a more expensive bit so that I have something to compare to.
Conclusion
The Milescraft Circle Guide Kit was exactly what I needed. It allowed me to make accurate, repeatable half-circles of various sizes using my Dewalt trim router. It comes with everything you need to make these cuts – I literally used every part! Most importantly, it allowed me to complete the job on time. Now that I’ve got some experience using a circle jig, I really think I would have lost too much time making my own jig.
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Finally, I only recommend products that I use on a regular basis and have proved their worthiness over time. Check out the Product Reviews page to see more.
