Faced with the challenge of creating multiple wood discs for coasters, I needed a way to cut them out without making a center hole in the workpiece. I came up with a simple solution using a circle cutter and a scrap block. To keep the parts from moving as the blade makes the cut, clamp the workpiece to the drill press table. The block stabilizes the circle cutter without drilling into the workpiece blank. The disc is completely cut out when it starts to spin. After removing the scrap block, you’ll have a blank disc with no center hole. The same block can be used again to cut out multiple discs.
To do it, adjust the drill bit on the circle cutter so it’s higher than the depth of the cutting blade by the thickness of the workpiece, plus 1⁄8", as shown here.
Use a scrap block of wood that’s at least the same thickness as the workpiece from which the circle is being cut and shorter diagonally than the diameter of the circle. Locate the block in the center of the circle and use double-sided tape to hold it in place.
