Quick Wood Compass With Many Fixed Length Radius

by ZombieWorkshop in Workshop > Woodworking

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Quick Wood Compass With Many Fixed Length Radius

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Wood Quick Compass

Watch the video for all the project info (for those who can watch the video maybe you visiting in your phone or tablet app, please visit via your desktop browser for the video)

Hi makers this time I will show you a quick compass, quick to made, for quick traces.

Some time you need to trace a simple circle or radius for the corners ,maybe for the small ones a simple compass its OK, but for big radius I always find my self looking for a can of soup or a paint can that fits more or less my project, I can make one of those fancy wooden compass with fancy sliding dovetails but again its time consuming to change radius every time I need a different measure also you can make a mistake if you change radius constantly or maybe you can loose repeatability.

The solution a piece of wood with holes, thats right , thats simple this compass its all you need and a printer to print a paper ruler to stick it to the wood and a pen or mechanical pencil of your choice.

  • Just cut a 3/4 inch X 1/2 inch strip of wood or plywood
  • Print your ruler (link for the ruler at the end of the instructable)
  • Use some adhesive (two sided tape, wood glue, spray adhesive)
  • Drill a hole In the center of the two zeros (if you are making for centimeter and inches)
  • File the hole until you get a tight fit for your pencil or pen
  • Drill holes at the steps you use I drill every 0.5cm and every 1/4 inch(using a drill press its highly recommended a small one like the dreamel one its more useful)
  • Drill using the size of the nail you are using as a pivoting point and get a tight fit
  • The smaller radius are not so useful they are some difficult to use starting at 2 inch or 5cm are a good idea
  • Add some transparent tape to protect your ruler print
  • Finish

To use

  • Insert your pencil
  • Insert your nail in the radius size you need
  • Use the nail as the pivoting point and make your radius

This compass can be as precise as you need , But this its a wood compass is not for rocket science , if you are using cm and inch one measure will be on the top and one on the bottom this will make an angle between the center of the pencil and the pivoting point this will set off about 1mm or 3/64 inch in the smaller radius of 2 inch or 5 cm ,bigger the circle the error becomes insignificant. But if you print the ruler with just cm or just inch drill at the center line and you will have no error.

Link the ruler (look for the size you are planning to made)

http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/paper_rulers...

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