How to Cut a Circle in Wood

The easiest accurate way to cut a circle in wood is a jigsaw with a pivot arm made from scrap. Screw a strip of thin plywood to the saw’s base, drive a nail through it at exactly the radius you want, put that nail in the center of your circle, and push the saw around it. The circle comes out round because geometry made it round — not because you steered well.

That is the key idea on this page and it applies to every method below. A circle is the one curve that does not need freehand skill, because every point on it is the same distance from one point. Find a way to fix that distance and the tool draws the circle for you. Almost every circle-cutting problem is really someone trying to steer a shape that could have been pivoted.

Which method to use comes down to two questions. How big is the circle? Under two inches, drill it. Two inches to a couple of feet, jigsaw or router. Bigger than that and a router trammel becomes the cleanest option. And does the edge need to be finished? A jigsaw leaves an edge you will sand; a router leaves one you could put a finish on straight away. That single difference decides most cases.

Method 1: jigsaw on a pivot — the general answer

This is the method to learn first, because it needs one tool you probably own and one piece of scrap.

Cut a strip of 1/4 inch plywood or hardboard a bit longer than your radius. Fix one end to the jigsaw base — most bases have a hole or two you can screw through, and a clamp works if yours does not — so the strip runs out behind the blade. Measure from the cutting edge of the blade, not from the edge of the base, along the strip, and put a nail or a screw through at your radius. That is the pivot.

Then: clamp the workpiece down with the circle area supported underneath, drop the pivot nail into your center mark, and cut. Push the saw forward gently and let it swing around the pivot. Two things to get right:

• Use a sharp, appropriate blade. A 10 TPI variable-pitch wood blade cuts cleanly and wanders far less than the mixed assortment that came with the saw. Blade quality shows up more on a curve than on a straight cut.
• Do not force it. Jigsaw blades bend, which is why cuts drift out of square in thick stock. Feeding harder bends the blade more. Cut slightly wide of the line and clean up afterwards rather than expecting the saw to be a finish tool.

For an inside circle — a hole in the middle of a panel rather than a disc from its edge — drill a blade entry hole first, on the waste side of your line, big enough for the blade to pass through. Start from there.

The one limit: a jigsaw blade cuts on the up-stroke, so the top face tears. Cut with the good face down. Our jigsaw technique guide covers the rest.

Method 2: router trammel — when the edge has to be clean

Same principle, better edge. A trammel is a strip of plywood screwed to the router’s base with a pivot pin at the radius. The router then cuts a circle with a cutter rather than a bending blade, and the result is a smooth, square, finish-ready edge that needs almost no cleanup.

Three rules make this safe and accurate:

• Shallow passes. Go 2 to 3 mm deeper each lap rather than trying to cut through in one pass. A router taking too much at once grabs, and a grabbing router moves fast.
• Feed against the rotation of the bit.This is the single most important router habit and it does not change for circles — our router safety guide covers direction, grip and why climb cuts bite.
• Sacrificial backer underneath. The bit comes through the far face on the last pass, and you want it going into scrap.

A palm router is more than enough for circles in 1/2 or 3/4 inch stock and it is the least intimidating way to try this — it is a one-handed tool doing a slow, controlled job. A straight bit is the right cutter; see router bits.

One honest note: our registry holds no purpose-made circle-cutting jig, and we are not going to point you at a substitute that does a different job. A shop-made trammel from a strip of scrap works as well as a bought one for almost everything. Where to buy woodworking tools covers the commercial options if you would rather buy one.

Method 3: drill it — for anything small

Under about two inches, cutting is the wrong verb. Two bits do this better than any saw:

• A Forstner bitcuts a clean-walled, flat-bottomed hole, which is what you want for a hole rather than a disc — a cable pass-through, a dust port, a cup socket. It is also the only bit that can cut partially over an existing hole, which lets you walk it along a line to make a slot.
• A hole sawcuts only the circumference and leaves the middle as a plug, which makes it the efficient choice for larger diameters in thinner material — and the choice when you want the disc rather than the hole. Our registry holds no hole saw, so there is no pick for one here.

Either way: clamp the workpiece, back it with scrap, and run the bit slow. A large bit that catches will spin a board out of your hands, and that is the real hazard with big holes. OSHA’s general machine-guarding standard (1910.212) is the formal version of the same instruction — guard the point of operation, which in a home shop means clamping the work instead of holding it. The comparison between the two bits is in Forstner vs spade bits.

Method 4: by hand, with a coping saw

Entirely practical for small circles, and the only option if the circle is in the middle of something you cannot get a power tool into. A coping saw’s rotating blade pins let you turn the cut in any direction without repositioning the workpiece, and the blade can be threaded through a drilled hole to start an inside cut — which is exactly the job it is for.

Three things help: keep the blade tensioned but not over-tensioned, since thin blades snap if you twist them mid-cut; cut just outside the line and true the edge afterwards; and work with the piece clamped low, around waist height, so you can see the line and the blade at the same time.

The throat depth of the frame limits how far in from an edge you can reach, and that is the honest constraint on hand-cutting circles. Beyond that reach, it is the jigsaw or the router.

What you need, and what each thing does

Nothing here is a circle-cutting specialty product. These are the four tools that each make one of the methods above work, and every one of them earns its place on other jobs too.

Tool	Why you need it	Price
Bosch JS260 6.0-Amp Top-Handle Jigsaw	The general-purpose answer. Low vibration is what lets a jigsaw follow a curve rather than dance off it, and toolless blade changes matter when you are swapping for an inside cut.	$119.00
Bosch T101B Clean for Wood T-Shank Jig Saw Blades, 5-Pack	10 TPI variable pitch — the blade that makes a jigsaw look competent on curves. Blade quality shows up far more on a circle than on a straight cut.	$9.99
Bosch PR20EVS Colt 1.0 HP Palm Router	For circles that need a finished edge. A palm router on a shop-made trammel is the gentlest way into routing, and it leaves an edge you can finish straight off the tool.	$113.54
Comoware 16-Piece Forstner Bit Set	For circles under about two inches, where drilling beats cutting. Clean walls, flat bottom, and the only bit that can overlap an existing hole.	$47.99
Bahco BAH301 Coping Saw, 6-1/2 in	The no-power option and the inside-cut specialist. Rotating blade pins turn the cut without moving the work, and blades cost pennies.	$20.77
Starter kit subtotal		$311.29

Live Amazon prices as of October 21, 2026; they change, and we don’t display stale numbers — a tool with no live price shows “Check price” and is left out of the subtotal. #ad How we’re funded.

Cleaning up the edge, which is most of the result

Only the router leaves an edge you can use as-is. For everything else, cutting slightly outside the line and refining to it is not a compromise — it is the method.

• Sanding block or sponge for small corrections. A flexible sponge follows a convex curve naturally; a block keeps the edge square on a concave one.
• A rasp or a filefor faster stock removal on a curve, which is exactly what those tools are shaped for — see rasps and files.
• A spokeshave for a long convex curve, which it does better and faster than any abrasive once you have the knack.

Then check the circle by eye against the drawn line in raking light — low, almost parallel to the surface. Flat spots on a curve are much easier to see in a shadow than straight on, and a flat spot is the thing that makes a circle look hand-cut.

What about a band saw or a circle-cutting jig for the table saw?

A band saw cuts curves better than anything else in a shop, and it is out of scope here for the same reason it is out of scope in our curves roundup: it is a stationary machine that a first garage shop should not be buying before a bench, a drill and a circular saw. There is no band saw pick on this site and that is a deliberate scope decision, not a verdict on the tool.

Table-saw circle jigs exist and they work by pivoting the workpiece against the blade in small increments. They are genuinely advanced technique on a machine where the consequences of a mistake are high, and the standard that covers woodworking machinery guarding (1910.213) is the reason we are not going to write that up as a beginner method. Use the jigsaw.