cut a circle on a tablesaw?

same sort of thing on a bandsaw. Just my thoughts... Andy

This method worked for me about 15 years ago when I made a 4' dia table out of red oak.

It actually leaves a much cleaner edge than the bandsaw.

Joel

Why?

That's a very old method that's been in many books and magazines.

Whoops, after finally looking at this video, this is not the same method that I used. My method involved a jig for positioning the top with the proper radius from blade to pivot point. The blade is only raised to about 1/8" and the top rotated for a full circle, then the blade is raised another 1/8 or so and sooner or later you will obtain a nicely cut circle that needs very little sanding, depending on your TS blade. I believe I saw this method on a very early show of "The New Yankee WS".

Yep, that was basically it. Kinda fascinating in a morbid sort of way, watching it wobble up and down on his cobbled-together pivot while he rotated it past the spinning blade. I kept expecting one of the offcuts to fly back and hit him...

Like this:

I couldn't get the other video to play all the way, I got as far as him making an octagon. I'll assume he just kept knocking the corners off until it was almost a circle.

-Leuf

For all we know, one of them did hit him. Yes, I remember seeing the show. Jim

Can you imagine a 4' square of red oak and you get a bind, WOW.......

As I recall, he cut it down to rough size before using that jig. I would not want to get hit with a board that big... Jim

This technique was probably used by Sister Tabatha, the Shaker who is credited with the first table saw. Joe G

I'd take it to within 1/8" with a saber saw first. I'd also use a larger pivot, maybe a #10 round head screw driven through the circle blank.

Why not. Very normal method.