# Making a wood 'donut'



## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

For my latest project I needed a 4" diameter circle with a 3" diameter hole in the middle out of 3/4" stock. The outside edges of the 'donut' or ring also needed a 1/4" round-over on the front and back.

Hole saws would have worked for a job like this but I don't have the correct sizes so I used the router. There's nothing special here, but if you're new to routing this might help you see one way of making something like this simply, safely, and relatively quickly.

The photos tell the story but here's what I did:

1. Drilled a 1/4" hole for the router circle guide pivot in the center of my 5.5" x 5.5" piece of cherry.

2. Drilled and counter sunk holes for screws in two corners, plus two within the inside diameter to attach the stock to a backup board. The screws keep the stock from slipping and turning, One set keeps the waste in place and the other set keeps the circle blank in place when the bit finally plunges through the 3/4" stock.

3. With the blank stock screwed to a backup board and the board clamped to the table I used a circle jig to cut the outside of the circle with 1/4" spiral bit making multiple passes.

4. Once the cut was finished I unscrewed and removed the outside waste.

5. With a 1/4" round-over bit in my trim router I rounded over the edge, unscrewed the circle, flipped it over, re-attached it to the backup board and rounded over the other edge.

6. Then, I unscrewed the circle blank from the backer, put some double-sided tape close to the outside of the final shape and reattached everything to the backer board. The tape holds the final donut in place when it breaks free from the center.

7. With the diameter reset on the circle jig I cut the inside diameter. Then it was a simple matter of unscrewing the center waste and pealing the donut off of the backer board.

As I said, nothing special here, just a simple no-hassle way to make what I needed.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

thanks....


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

No sprinkles or Icing? At least it's a cherry doughnut.

A good looking torus and a great tutorial as always!


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

As always Oliver, you lead the pack...


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Nice Oliver.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Very impressive, Oliver! 

( You do know the drugstore sells soft ones, right? )


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## gmercer_48083 (Jul 18, 2012)

Oliver, Great use of double sided tape. I am still working up the courage (trust) in tape for that use. Good tutorial!


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## Roy Drake (Feb 10, 2014)

Oliver, thanks. Easy for us beginners to understand - and visualize - through your photos.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

I've wondered how this could be done. It looks both safe and accurate. Thanks!


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

gmercer_48083 said:


> Oliver, Great use of double sided tape. I am still working up the courage (trust) in tape for that use. Good tutorial!


experiment on 'cheap' wood before trusting nice wood to your tape. I've had good and disastrous experiences using tape


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## twallace (Jan 15, 2012)

Thanks for the teaching ,very good explanation however I wish to make some curtain rings 1/2 inch thick an outer diameter 2 5/8 and inner diameter 1 3/4
using bandsaw for the outer diameter and a forstner for the inner and a 1/4 roundover bit but looking for a more efficient way. any ideas?

tom


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

twallace said:


> Thanks for the teaching ,very good explanation however I wish to make some curtain rings 1/2 inch thick an outer diameter 2 5/8 and inner diameter 1 3/4
> using bandsaw for the outer diameter and a forstner for the inner and a 1/4 roundover bit but looking for a more efficient way. any ideas?
> 
> tom


 @twallace

Thomas, if you have to make a lot of rings I suggest a hole saw for the outer diameter. You could get multiple rings out of single board using your drill press. Next, a simple v-shaped jig could be made to align the forstner bit for drilling the center holes. The v-shaped jig would also prevent the disk blank from spinning when you drill the hole. It should be easy to set up a mini production line to make the curtain rings.


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## mmalinco (Jun 12, 2012)

*Thank you for an outstanding tip*

Quite ingenious, well thought out. Thank you for the outstanding illustrations.


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## bryansong (Mar 4, 2015)

I think the tape would work well with that because the screws are holding most of the work piece.

Bryan


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## twallace (Jan 15, 2012)

Thanks Oliver I will give that a try...I thought of the holesaw but felt that it would require much sanding as oppose to the bandsaw circle jig.
tom


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