Recently, I began making some bedroom furniture that featured numerous drawers with curved fronts. To help me cut a consistent arc on the fronts, I devised the radius-cutting jig for my band saw that you see here.
The jig allows you to pivot the workpiece easily across the blade for a perfect cut (photos above). Getting the perfect curve with this jig lies with locating the pivot point accurately. The pivot point needs to be centered on the blade of the band saw. And, finally, the jig had to hold the workpiece level with the table of my band saw.
Pegboard is used as the “swing arm” because it has a lot of evenly spaced holes for pivot points. It’s attached to a base with a hex bolt and a threaded insert. The base supports the swing arm level with my band saw table. And for stability, the workpiece is carpet-taped to the fence at the end of the swing arm.
My router table came closest to meeting those requirements, so I clamped the jig base to my router table fence. That allowed me to fine-tune the placement of the pivot point to get the right alignment and height for the fronts. -Dudley Donnelly Fort Collins, Colorado
