Guild Forum

Vol.2 No.3
9 April 2003

Method for maintaining thickness cutting small wheels

By George Hoffman

Q. How do you get a uniform thickness and round wheels for the toys wheels? I have tried cutting a small dowel and a paper punch on thin basswood, I have had better results using a paper punch with the wood backed with masking tape. Thank You!

Sincerely, Jean

A. Wheels of uniform thickness: One method for cutting small or any size wheels and keeping uniform thickness is to use dowels of the proper diameter. The saw set-up shown in the drawing below, uses a slide table and a holding block for the dowel. This will keep all your cuts exactly the same thickness.
Second Option is to use punch on high quality plywood of correct thickness. See MicroMark catalog for plywood.

See Drawing below: