Precision Jig for Cutting Curves

Synopsis: The bandsaw shines for many woodworking jobs, but if you ask Brian Boggs, its greatest potential is revealed when you use it with a template to cut curves. Equipped with a properly set up saw and using the techniques described here, you’ll make repeatable, glue-joint-quality bandsawn cuts that don’t require cleanup with a router. Boggs gives tips on sawing freehand, how to make a template that includes a “follower” to steady the cut, and how to cut true, large-radius arcs.

In 35 years working wood I’ve gradually acquired many machines, but the bandsaw remains at the heart of my shop, the one machine I couldn’t live without. Bandsaws are irreplaceable for cutting all sorts of curves freehand, of course, and I’ll say a little here about those. But that’s just the beginning. The saw’s greatest potential is revealed when you use it for template-guided curve cutting. Set up properly and guided by templates, a bandsaw can deliver repeatable curved cuts in a mind-bending array. With template-guided cuts you don’t have to correct rough bandsawn curves with a router, just sand away tooth scratches.

If the techniques I describe here don’t work well on your saw, they will if you tune it up. The best article I have read on bandsaw tune-up is Michael Fortune’s “Five Tips for Better Bandsawing” (FWW #173 or FineWoodworking.com/271). I’d recommend reading that (paying particular attention to his discussion of blade drift) to get your bandsaw running sweetly before you start cutting with templates.

A few other tips before you begin: I use 1⁄2-in., 4-tpi skip-tooth blades almost exclusively for curve cutting, whether I’m sawing with my trusty old 14-in. Delta or my even older, even trustier 30-in. Yates-American. I also keep multiple fresh blades on hand; a dull blade is hard to control, and I don’t want to be tempted to continue cutting with one. Be sure the blade tracks to the center of the wheel and that the blade’s side is parallel to the right edge of the bandsaw table. Keep your feed rate consistent, as changes in pressure can alter the behavior of the blade. And cut test pieces to make sure the setup is generating excellent results before you risk your furniture parts.

Some tips for sawing freehand

When cutting curves freehand, you’ll benefit by watching the side of the blade as well as the pencil line. If the gap beside the blade is uniform, you’re cutting well, in line with the blade drift. Drift is the line the blade wants to take while cutting. You can follow a pencil line even if you are not feeding directly with the drift, but the blade will leave a washboard pattern on the cut surface. Ideally, the blade drift should be parallel to the right edge of the table. To check this, place a straightedge on the table and snugged up beside the blade, between two teeth. If the straightedge isn’t parallel to the edge of the table, adjust the tracking. If you have to track the blade much off the center of the wheel to correct the drift, it’s time to tune up the crown of your wheels to re-center them.

Sawing flat

Keep an eye on the gap beside the blade as well as the pencil line. If the saw is cutting properly the gap should be parallel (1). When finishing a low-angle curved cut (2), exert gentle pressure against the side of the blade to keep it from skipping out and leaving a bump. To correct a cut that wavered (3), let the rear of the blade rub the workpiece as you feed the teeth into the waste.

Support the workpiece

Template-guided cuts are precise

On the bandsaw, being able to follow a line and get a good cut freehand is an invaluable skill. But no matter what your skill level is with freehand curve cutting, those cuts will not approach the precision you can attain with a template-guided cut. Woodworkers often create curved parts by making a rough cut with the bandsaw and then cleaning up with hand tools or by pattern-routing. But once you get fluent with template-guided bandsawn cuts, you’ll be able to create super-smooth curves of virtually any shape that shouldn’t need more than a light sanding. And if they are shapes you use often, you’ll develop a bank of templates you can access quickly. If you saw a lot of curves, this can be a life changer.

Follow the finger

To get your saw to follow a curvy template, you’ll need to fix a follower, or finger, just in front of the blade. A template attached to the workpiece and pressed against the follower allows for much steadier and faster cutting than freehand. The follower is really just a steady rest. You still have to guide the feed direction manually, but pressing the template against the follower keeps the pattern in the right position and steadies the cut for easier control and much faster feed rates than when bandsawing freehand.

You can create a follower from a piece of solid wood or plywood and clamp it to the bandsaw table. But once you get used to the speed and accuracy of this simple method, you may want a handier follower to work with. I made one for my 14-in. Delta bandsaw that was screwed to the blade guard. It worked fine, but I had to remove it for every blade change. So on my Yates-American I found a spot below the blade guard where I could bolt a brass follower right in front of the blade. The follower can be adjusted to whatever offset I need. I usually set it at 1⁄16 in. That’s close enough for accuracy and far enough to save the pattern from getting cut if my focus fails. This follower stays on the saw, always at the ready. It can follow virtually any template, and hardly a day goes by that I don’t use it.

Because of the 1⁄16-in. offset between the blade and the follower, the template needs to be made 1⁄16 in. smaller than the final part. If you are sawing both sides of a part, the template should be 1⁄8 in. narrower than the finished workpiece.

Making templates

To make most templates, I draw the shape I want on a piece of 1⁄2-in.-thick MDF and bandsaw it out very carefully freehand. To smooth the edges, I make a flexible sander by adhering PSA-backed sandpaper to a thin strip of wood. This does not yield a perfect piece, but I don’t use the follower system when perfection is required. After sanding, I soak the edge of the template with thin cyanoacrylate (super) glue and hit it with accelerator, then sand it with 320-grit paper. This gives the template a very hard, smooth, and wear-resistant edge. Without this treatment, MDF is too soft for long-term use as a template.

Template-guided cutting

Making a template

To lay out shallow curves on the MDF template (1), Boggs uses straight-grained solid stock sawn thin. In this case, he glued straight blocks to the ends of the strip to confine the curve to the center section. To fair the sawn edge of the template, Boggs adheres sandpaper to a flexible strip of wood (2). For a long-wearing template in MDF, harden the edge with cyanoacrylate glue (3).

A follower steers the cut

In most guided cuts, the template is attached to the top of the workpiece. A shopmade follower, screwed to a riser block and clamped to the table, rubs the edge of the template to guide the cut.

Bolt-on follower travels with the guides

Using off-the-shelf aluminum angle and brass bar stock, Boggs made an adjustable follower that bolts to the bottom of his blade-guide assembly.

True arcs require a two-part fence

For cutting large true-radius arcs, or for creating the concave and convex halves of a two-part fence (more about this in a minute), I often use a pivoting jig made from two pieces of MDF. I attach the bottom piece, in which I’ve drilled a line of holes, to the bandsaw table. The line of holes is centered on the blade and perpendicular to the saw’s line of cut. I drill a hole in the top piece of MDF and use a 1⁄4-in. bolt as a pivot pin. The top sheet acts as a sled to swing the workpiece through the cut. Again, I make a test cut in scrap to check the cut quality before cutting real parts.

When I want to create parts whose curves are true arcs and whose surfaces are glue-joint quality, I often use a two-part fence. This method produces the best possible cut quality and perfect repeatability. The two parts of the fence must be exactly mated: one fence concave and the other convex. Both these fences can be produced with one cut using the pivot-point technique I just described. After cutting the two pieces apart, make a strip of veneer the same thickness as the bandsaw’s kerf. Then glue the strip of veneer to the edge of one of the fences. Now the two fences are perfectly matched, and the veneer also provides a nice low-friction surface.

Next, cut a notch for the blade in whichever fence will be clamped to the saw table. Notch both fences if you want to be able to make both concave and convex arcs. Cut the notch about 1⁄8 in. wider than the blade and at least 1⁄8 in. deep; cut it deeper if you want the option to cut varying radii with the same jig. When I’m making a single part, I generally use double-sided tape to attach the workpiece atop the fence. For multiples I’ll make a dedicated sled with toggle clamps.

I’ve used this same two-fence technique to make parts with multiple curves. My RAD bar stool legs ride a template that has two concave cutouts, each of which matches the radius of a convex stationary fence. To create curved chamfers, I make the cuts with the bandsaw table tilted. What’s next? I’ve been doing template bandsawing for decades, but the exploration continues daily.

Template variations

Template for production work

For curved parts that he makes repeatedly, Boggs sometimes creates friction-fit templates. Here the screwed-on end blocks secure and locate the part and also extend the curve of the template, making for smooth entry and exit cuts. Boggs says this system, used here for chair rails, “produces very uniform parts, and they get sawn faster than I can pick up a pencil and draw the curve.”

Transparent template

When grain alignment is critical, as on these back slats for his ladderback chairs, Boggs makes Plexiglas templates. He uses screw points, which protrude 1⁄16 in., to secure the template to the workpiece.

Bottom-mounted template

For workpieces that aren’t flat, like this stool seat, with its curved top and bottom faces, you can use a bottom-mounted template and a follower clamped directly to the bandsaw table. Add blocks to the template to stabilize the workpiece.

Mating fences for perfect arcs

First make the fences

With one sheet of MDF clamped to the bandsaw table and fitted with a metal pin, another sheet is laid on top and pivots on the pin. This enables Boggs to saw a piece of template stock in half, producing both the convex and concave fences with one cut. To make the two fences mate exactly, Boggs creates a strip of veneer the same thickness as the kerf of his bandsaw, then glues the veneer to the edge of one of the fences.

Then put them to use

With one of the mating fences clamped to the saw, the other is used as a sled. Boggs fixes the workpiece in place with double-sided tape. The two-fence system, which works only with true arcs, produces the smoothest possible bandsawn surface.

Add a shim for parellel curves

You can make a narrow, curved workpiece by inserting a shim between the jig and the rip fence for the first cut. Then remove the shim to make the second cut, which will be perfectly concentric with the first.

Arcs on an angle

To shape the heavy curved chamfers on his bar stool, Boggs made a bottom-mounted template with two concave scoops on each side that mate with a convex fence clamped to the bandsaw. He cuts with the table at an angle, demonstrating Boggs’s contention that nearly all things are possible on a bandsaw.

Brian Boggs builds furniture in Asheville, N.C.

For the full article, download the PDF below.

More on FineWoodworking.com:

• Video – Bandsaw Tips: How to eliminate drift from your cuts by Michael Fortune #270–Sep/Oct 2018 Issue
• Tool Test: Bandsaw Fences by Asa Christiana #230–Tools & Shops 2013 Issue
• An interview with chairmaker Brian Boggs by Brian Boggs and Ben Strano #268–May/June 2018 Issue

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