Product Review - Milescraft Router Circle Cutting Guide Kit

[Sir Stinkalot]

The sales blurb:

Cut small and large circles from 38 - 1320mm diameter with the CircleGuideKit. With the included TurnLock base plate, this product is compatible with most routers. There is no longer a need for that homemade circle cutting jig, the CircleGuideKit does it all for you and includes everything you need to cut your desired circle. It also includes a BONUS Offset Base for finishing edges on your work piece.

The real life experience:

I have an upcoming speaker project where I need a number of circles to be cut in veneered mdf. Sure there are plenty of other options out there, however after some research I decided to invest in the Milescraft circle guide kit. Time is valuable and I thought that the $72.50 investment (on sale at the time from Timbecon) was money well spent if it would give me speed and accuracy.

As always full disclosure- I paid full retail (It was on sale in January for $72.50 now back at RRP $85) from Timbecon and have no interest in either Timbecon or Milescraft - but though there should be more user reviews on the forum.

The kit:



So this afternoon I had my fist play with the jig on some mdf. The initial setup requires fitting TurnLock base plate. I decided to use my smaller Makita router so had to remove my Rockler universal base to fit the Milescraft base.



This was straight forward. There is a centering pin that is inserted into the router (either 1/4” or 1/2”) - it has a bulge in the middle so you can insert the bushing into the plate and then centre the plate to the router. Initially I hadn’t plunged my base enough so the bushing was on the centering pin, but there was play on either side, I then realised that I needed to plunge the router further so the bushing self centred on the tapered middle of the centering pin - easy enough to work through, but no mention of this in the manual. As this is a universal base there were plenty of options to try and align the mounting points with the router. I used a washer as my screw head wasn’t particularly wide and it worked well. You can also drill the base if you have a router base the is more unusual.

The kit comes with a large and small circle guide. I only need the small for this project. It’s possible to buy the small jig separately ($52.90) however I don’t believe you can buy the large jig separately - as it was on sale I purchased the full kit as I’m sure I would also need the large at some time in the future if I only bought the small.



The small guide is assembled into the locking base. Very simple process. The supplied 1/4” straight router bit is inserted into the router.

The manual recommends marking the centre and then a point on the circle you want to cut. I started off with a 124mm dia circle and ran a compass around.



The first step is using the supplied drill bit to drill a mounting hole at the centre of the circle. There is a screw hole in the jig to insert the supplied pivot screw. This screw needs to be tight enough to prevent sidewards movement, but loose enough to allow the jig to turn.

The router with the universal base is then twist locked onto the jig. There is a red locking pin, which I found didn’t always fully lock so it’s worth double checking to see it’s fully engaged.



You then use the scale to set the size of the circle. There is a marking for either the inside or outside diameter of the circle, as you need to account for the bit width (or the jig does). I wanted a 124mm “hole” so I set the guide to 12.4.



To be sure I double checked against the compass mark and found it would have formed an oversized hole - by about half the bit diameter.



I adjusted the jig to align with my markings.



And this was the resulting readout - I’m reading this as inside 10.6 and outside 13.0. Not sure why the guide is off - but easy enough to accurately set based off my initial markings. The manual does mention that the router bit should be touching your initial mark - which makes the ruler guide somewhat redundant- especially when the readings seem to be off.



Cutting the circle is straightforward. Using a plunge router just set the depths for light passes and keep going. On this trial I didn’t try and cut all the way through as it was on my table saw and I will use this for a sacrificial base for the project. I did need to stop the router and reposition my hands to keep the trigger pressed, but this didn’t seem to impact the circle. The two ends met perfectly.



The hole ended up being 122.7mm not the 124mm I was aiming for. This is basically the pencil thickness so next time I might try setting out with the digital calipers. I don’t think I need to get that accurate, however once the hole is cut it’s going to be difficult to enlarge. Unfortunately it’s not possible to do a trial measure with the jig in place, but it can be removed and repositioned again after a check measure - hopefully without changing the settings.



The kit also comes with an offset base that uses the same twist lock system. It seems like a strange inclusion as it doesn’t seem to relate to the circle cutting jig. It seems sturdy enough and may be useful, but I get the feeling it may have been a slow seller as a standalone item so they have bundled it into the kit.

Overall on my limited use it seems like a good investment. I’m not confident with the measurements on the guide, however it would always be my preference to double check against my measurements before cutting, so the measurements are somewhat redundant to me and I wouldn’t be relying on them. The manual was fairly good, and Milescraft have a good 8min demonstration on their YouTube channel, which is perhaps more informative than my review. I will update if anything changes once it’s being used in a project environment.

9/10

[Sir Stinkalot]

And we are off and running with the project!

So far so good .... it would be handy to have a cordless router to prevent the cord winding, but other than that no complaints.

This component required a rebated circle and a full cut through. I worked off my measurements and aligned the bit, not relying on the guide measurements.




Overall happy with the results. My only issue is I didn’t check the full plunge depth of the router before starting, there is a fair bit of plunge depth lost to the guide plate. Before my final pass to cut the circle free I needed to lower the bit in the router collet to get some more depth - didn’t impact on the operation but worth checking first.

It’s worth paying close intention when the cut is about to break free as there is the possibility of the router shifting and cutting into the circle again as the router is now just sitting on a floating plate in the middle of the circle. I didn’t have any issue this time but will try next time to direct the router towards the circle centre as it cuts through.

The measurements given by the speaker manufacturer, which I followed were a little on the generous side - eg 7mm rebate for 6mm plate. It will all be black (and at the rear of the speaker) so no issues.

[aldav]

When cutting with any router circle cutting jig it pays to cut to within, say 1mm, of the thickness of the stock and then do the last pass to clear the remaining material. This greatly reduces the possibility of the bit grabbing and making a mess of your work.

[Lappa]

I adjusted the jig to align with my markings.



And this was the resulting readout - I’m reading this as inside 10.6 and outside 13.0. Not sure why the guide is off - but easy enough to accurately set based off my initial markings. The manual does mention that the router bit should be touching your initial mark - which makes the ruler guide somewhat redundant- especially when the readings seem to be off.


9/10

I read that as inside 10.6 and outside 12.0.

Thanks for the write up. Looks like a useful bit of kit.

[Sir Stinkalot]

When cutting with any router circle cutting jig it pays to cut to within, say 1mm, of the thickness of the stock and then do the last pass to clear the remaining material.

Fully agree. I took multiple passes to get through the thickness with the last being very light. On the second speaker as I approached the final breakthrough point of the circle I moved put a little more force (light) towards the centre of the circle. The off cut which was supporting the router moved clear of the cut edge as the support moved over into the rebate of the cut on the other side - no issues with the bit making a mess at the end.

2 down 13 to go!

[Hodgo]

I couldn't resist buying on of these

Good also for doing arcs,
like you I also found it was easier to adjust the bar at the router end to get the ruler precisely on the mark then make sure everything is tight before starting

I've been using a triton TRA001 on mine up til now, but I see you have mounted the smaller makita router which I was told I couldn't mount on the plate, have you replaced 2 of the countersunk screws in the base?
looks like I may not sell the makita after all

cant help thinking how much bench space you'd need to cut a full sized circle

cheers
Hodgo

[aldav]

cant help thinking how much bench space you'd need to cut a full sized circle.

I recently had to cut some arcs up to 3 metres radius with the router. Did it in the driveway.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I've been using a triton TRA001 on mine up til now, but I see you have mounted the smaller makita router which I was told I couldn't mount on the plate, have you replaced 2 of the countersunk screws in the base?

No issues at all with the small Makita (3629). I normally have a Rockler universal base mounted to it and just swapped it out. I used some different screws that I I had lying around as the ones I use on the Rockler plate must use different mounting holes and seem larger.



I went with the small Makita over the larger Hitachi M12V as it’s lighter and easier to manoeuvre on the jig. No problems with power for this type of work.

[Hodgo]

I recently had to cut some arcs up to 3 metres radius with the router. Did it in the driveway.

thought they were called donuts

[aldav]

thought they were called donuts

Maximum length was 1.6 metres so they certainly weren't donuts.