Best way to cut circles

[altbob]

I'm just curious if people use a compass* to cut circles and hubs where you need to cut both an interior and exterior diameter. I've been just doing it freehand with an x-axcto knife, sometimes even assisted by a mechanical drafting/architectural template, but can't seem to get the circles to come out as perfectly as some I've seen posted here.

I have a circle cutter compass that I rigged up myself (similar to this one - http://www.micromark.com/circle-cutt...-dia,8067.html) but it's way too big to cut circles in paper at 1/2" diameter, and often I need to make circles much smaller than that.

Thanks!

[Swampfox]

I use a pair of very good scissors.

Fisker's is the brand I use.

Don't laugh until you've tried it!

Once you get use to them you can cut very fast and accurate.

SFX

[jagolden01]

Originally Posted by Swampfox

I use a pair of very good scissors.

Fisker's is the brand I use.

Don't laugh until you've tried it!

Once you get use to them you can cut very fast and accurate.

SFX

Wow! Scissors to cut rings. Skilled.

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

A pair of (curved) nail scissors makes it even easier.

[Dabeer]

Originally Posted by Swampfox

I use a pair of very good scissors.

Fisker's is the brand I use.

Don't laugh until you've tried it!

Once you get use to them you can cut very fast and accurate.

SFX

Fiskars is definitely the brand to go with if you're going to use scissors (I like these, myself)... but although I can see the outer circle being fairly easy to cut, I'm not so sure they'd do well for inner circles, as you'd have to distort the material to get it out of the way of the blades...

[SCEtoAUX]

The only way to get those small perfect rings is to practice cutting them.

Have you tried using circle punches? It would take some practice to line up the centers to punch rings, but it can be done. Scrapbooking has different sizes of circle punches.

Widget Supply has a bunch of different circle punches. Input circle punch in the search box.

Probably will not find the exact diameter circle punches you would need for all of the different size of rings and circles you will find in paper models.

[Swampfox]

Originally Posted by jagolden01

Wow! Scissors to cut rings. Skilled.

Skilled? maybe a little.

Practiced is more like it;-)

And yes the curved cutting blade does help.

SFX

[Tex]

Howdy y'all!
Just to throw in my two cents: scalpel blades for me, no punches, no scissors, what with "circles" of often less than 1 mm in diameter and all ... a little bit of pressure and NO PULLING the blade usually does the trick for me ...
- Tex

[modelperry]

For me anything between 1 mm and 5 mm gets done with a Japanese hole drill (or punch). Other than that, I cut ID circles freehand with an exacto knife and OD circles get cut with Fiskar scissors like Dabeer uses.

I have a circle cutter and find it more trouble than it is worth.

Thats my two cents worth.

greg

[DWest]

I've tried a compass style cutter and was not at all happy with it, so I cut mine with an exacto knife. I now sort of like circles with little flat spots and wiggles, they are like snowflakes-no two are exactly the same......lol