Any woodworkers? Need advice for making a shelf for bowl and brush.

churley79 · Aug 8, 2012

I know there's plenty of woodworkers out there, I was hoping one of you could give me any suggestions for routing out a circle with a Dremel Trio. I have this cup/bowl that I use to make lather in and I want to make a small shelf with a 3" recessed circle for the cup to sit in and a smaller hole for the brush to sit in. As luck would have it, the smallest circle you can make with the dremel circle attachment is 4", but the shelf can only be 3.5" wide.

I've tried freehanding it, it looked like I let my dogs do it and then I tried getting a spare piece of wood and making a pivot point in the middle and putting the Dremel 1.5" away. I ended up cutting through my guide. Granted I'm not a woodworker, I just never had any idea this would be this aggravating. :cursing:

Any suggestions?

MrDentini · Aug 9, 2012

http://www.ehow.com/way_5163940_way-cut-circles-wood.html

AverageJoe · Aug 9, 2012

I've done quite a bit of woodworking, both at shops and on my own, so I understand your dilemma---sometimes a good jig takes more time to make than seems worth spending! I'm not familiar with the Trio, so I Googled it. It looks like the base is square or rectangular which doesn't help you any when using a guide to route curves!! Normally, with my good old Porter Cable router with a circular base, I'd just make a template and go and then freehand route out the remainder. This would give the cleanest result IMHO. (if you don't have a regular full-sized router, this is a good excuse to get one-----everyone needs at least one. I'd suggest the basic Porter-Cable)

You could do something similar if you have a drill press using a fly cutter to cut to depth and again, route out the middle. Here's link to a fly-cutter:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/industrialcirclecutter.aspx

Alternatively, you could get a 3" holesaw and drill to the depth you want and then (carefully!) route up to the saw kerf at the same depth. For the smaller hole, just get a 'forstner bit' of the diameter you need. One should be available close to brush-size and will drill a nice, clean flat-bottomed hole. (there will be a small hole from the pilot point, of course, but that will be hidden when brush is in place.)