This is a very simple and easy to make project, but very useful in our woodworking shop. I don’t have a drawing compass in the shop anymore, since when I had one it didn’t come out very well (I think I need to go making shop cabinets to store hand woodworking tools in the shop), so when I need to draw a circle I often look for something round with more or less the desired diameter. And only if necessary do I go into the house to get the drawing compass.
(Revision: Well, now I have a DIY beam compass ).
The most common may be to need something that we can use to draw large circles, for which a drawing compass is very useful. But with this type of drawing compass, the beam compass, it is not easy to draw the smaller circles, so it is worth making both models to be able to draw all the circles we might need. In the translated article you will find the video, with subtitles in Spanish, where you can watch how John makes the small drawing compass, as well as a PDF file with the measurements that can be downloaded to print. The materials needed to make this small compact drawing compass are very basic and you probably have most of them in your woodworking shop. The only thing a little special is the bicomponent epoxy adhesive, but if you don’t have this type of adhesive I can tell it is something very easy to find in hardware stores or DIY centers- And it is also a very useful adhesive to have in the woodworking and DIY shop.
In the video that you have in the article on his website John explains step by step how to make this wooden drawing compass from the template printed on paper. He uses his band saw, and a disc sander, but a project like this can be done with a fret saw, a wooden block with sandpaper wrapped around it, and a hand drill.
You have the link to the article in Spanish about this small compact drawing compass by John Heisz in the woodworking projects tab of this blog, and once there go to I Build It translations (number 3).
