# Rockler Ellipse/Circle Router Jig



## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

I am thinking about buying this jig for sign and tray making plus what ever I think I might want to do. What is your opinion and do you own one?


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

make your own, That is what I did. That way you can size it to fit your project.

Herb


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Making your own doesn't seem very complicated. Here's some YouTube videos. You can see that it is really just a pair of dados cut at 90 degrees and miter bars attached to a long wood piece so the miter bars can rotate freely. The first video is a shop made jig with nuts to place the miter bar location, which controls the elliptical path. The other three are commercial jigs.





 Nice and big, stable too.




 The Rockler jig in action.




 Infinity cutting tools jig.




 Woodhaven jig.

You


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## neville (Oct 20, 2014)

I've made my own. 
And there are a few options. 
For large circles you can use the guide bars to connect to something with a pin.

For small circles I make a replacement base and drill a hole in an appropriate place to hold a pin.

I have used both mdf as a base and baltic birch.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

From what I am seeing and reading I will have to make my own jig to get one that will make ovals as small as I want.


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## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

Don, I just completed one this week. You can find plenty of videos and pictures on the Internet. I made some minor modifications to the one I built. It will create ellipses with axis's from 4" to 20". The base is plywood and poplar. The arm is plywood and the standoffs are poplar. It's what I had on hand in one of my many scrap bins. I put two coats of dewaxed shellac on the bottom of the base since I'll use double sided tape to hold it down and I didn't want the tape to pull up any of the ply.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Don, I have the Rockler jig with both large and small bases. This jig is easy to work with.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Barry747 said:


> Don, I just completed one this week. You can find plenty of videos and pictures on the Internet. I made some minor modifications to the one I built. It will create ellipses with axis's from 4" to 20". The base is plywood and poplar. The arm is plywood and the standoffs are poplar. It's what I had on hand in one of my many scrap bins. I put two coats of dewaxed shellac on the bottom of the base since I'll use double sided tape to hold it down and I didn't want the tape to pull up any of the ply.


Barry you hit the nail on the head. This is exactly what I need. I have a couple of questions please. What are the measurements of the base from left to right and top to bottom. I assume they are the same but you know how that goes. Also the dove tails did you cut them with a router or table saw and do they slide easy? Thanks for your help.


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## Barry747 (Jun 16, 2011)

Don, first a correction to my post. The minimum size of the minor axes is 8”, I had originally stated 4”. The maximum is 20”. One additional dimension is that the difference between the major and minor axis can be no more than 6”. I’ll use this jig to make oval cutting boards of various sizes with the most common size being 10” X 16”. Depending on what sizes you need you can make the base smaller or larger. That’s just to give you a background on my jig.

The base is 5.5” by 5.5”. You can make the base larger or smaller, depending on your need, but the length and width must be exactly the same size. This is due to the way I made it. I glued ¼” plywood to ¾” poplar and trimmed it on the table saw to the 5.5” dimensions. At this point there are several ways you can cut the grooves and it depends on what tools you have and how you’d like to go about it. Here’s how I did it.

To form the base: I mounted a 14 degree dovetail bit in my router table. You can use any angle you like. I set the height to 5/8” so it wouldn’t cut all the way through the poplar down to the ply. I wanted the groove to be about ¾” wide at the top. Depending on your bit you’ll have to adjust the fence but I set it to cut a little past the center line of the piece. I then ran the block along on all 4 sides and that formed the groove perfectly centered on the block in both directions. I then used the table saw to knock off the 4 corners, forming an octagon. The reason for this is, if you don’t, the standoffs on the arm that hold the router will hit the edges when routing a small ellipse.

One additional thing, I drew a center line through the bottom of each groove. Where the center lines crossed, which is dead center in the base, I drilled a 1/2". That hole allows me to line up the base with the center of the board that I'm going to route. 

To form the slides: I used a 12” long piece of poplar to form the slides. I milled it to 9/16” thickness. I did this so the slide wouldn’t quite touch the bottom of the groove to avoid it getting jammed with sawdust. That was my choice. Many jigs I found do go the full depth. You can use the same router set up to form the slides. If this works for you I’d suggest this way since you’re already set up for it. I had a bit of a problem, probably my own ineptitude, so I decided to use my table saw. Using a digital angle gage I set the blade to 14 degrees and ripped the strip of poplar so the top (the smaller dimension) came out to ¾”. I then cut the piece into two 1 1/2“ pieces. i used a 12" piece because it was easier to handle. The rest of the strip went back into my scrap bin. 

I drilled ½” hole in the bottom of the slides deep enough to accept a washer and so that the machine screw (1/8”hole) that attaches to the arm is inset below the surface. 

The slides do glide fairly easily but a little wax make them slide easier. 

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions or would like more detailed photos please let me know. Let us know how it comes out.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Thanks Barry and you did help a great deal. You had a great idea in making the slides where they will not sit on the bottom. They will not catch the sawdust and there is no friction from them rubbing the bottom.


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## cynthiamyra (May 17, 2016)

Impressive work, Thanks for sharing videos.


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