Wooden Compass. a Shop Tool for Circle Drawing and Dividing.

I needed a large radius circle for a project I was building, but I didn't have anything large enough to use as a template (bucket lids and whatnots) so I built a simple wooden compass.

I can also use it to draw pretty pictures....

Materials:

Wood - In this case a 1 1/2 square piece of scrap cherry about 16" long
Hardware: 5/16 bolt, a washer and a wing nut
Compass point: A drywall screw
Drawing point: Small pencil (like from mini golf places)
Finish: Shellac in a ranch dressing bottle.

Tools:

Table saw
Band Saw
Sander
Drill press
Grinder

Step 1: Cutting the Pieces

As stated I had a scrap piece of cherry in the shop from another project so I used it.

I ripped it on the table saw down the middle.

That gave me 2 halves: 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 16"

Step 2: Shaping

I then drew a rough shape on the wood and took it to the band saw for shaping.

After that I fired up the sander and cleaned up all the rough lines and tool marks.

Both of these operations can be done with hand power tools, (jigsaw and palm sanders) or even non-power tools (hand saw, planes, files and sanding blocks) Whatever you have.

Step 3: Drilling

Next drill a hole for the bolt:

I used a 5/16" bit and drilled straight through both halves. Then I switched to a 3/4" forstner bit and recess a hole for the washer and wing nut.

Again, this could easily be doe with a hand drill or even a brace.

Step 4: Pivot Point

I'd been mulling over how to make a pivot point when a light bulb suddenly came on.

I had tons of them...

I drilled a 1/8" pilot hole in one of the ends and then drove a medium drywall screw into the leg. I took that to bench grinder and smoothed it into a sharp steel point.

If you have a Dremel you could use that in place of the grinder.