Kevin wants to lay out a circle. He looked around and found several items he could trace around, but none of them was the right size.
So what do you do? If you happen to have a compass, that will work. Kevin shows a welding compass that holds a piece of soapstone for marking on metal. You can just set it to whatever size you want. Measure across the ends with your tape measure for half of the distance so you can make the whole circle.
But what happens if the compass isn’t big enough? You can always get a bigger compass. Kevin shows how he taped a metal marking pen to one side of a large compass, but you can tape on any kind of marker. You set up your compass, get your distance right, and lay out your circle.
What happens if you don’t have a compass? Find a ball of string or really any kind of string. Do you have a pair of boots? Take out the bootlaces, tie them together.
You also need an anchor in the middle of your circle. Kevin shows a rare earth magnet. He keeps them around for holding down plans. They’re great for drawing circles, because you can just stick them to a piece of metal.
(Kevin then explains the piece of paper he set the rare earth magnet on: it’s so he can get the magnet back off the table again!)
Take a string, tie it right around the magnet, and get half of your distance. Keep your marker absolutely vertical. Keep the string nice and tight – not so tight that you pull it loose, not so tight that you move the magnet, lose the marker, whatever, but just keep some tension on it and you can draw all the way around your circle. Mark out out your circle as the string rotates around the center magnet as you go. And you wind up with a perfect circle.
What if you don’t have a rare earth magnet? What if you don’t have any kind of magnet? You’re working on a piece of steel. You can’t put a nail in it, but you could drill a hole in the middle, put a screw in it, and use that as your center point.
If you don’t want a hole, do you have a bucket or anything round the string could slip around that you could fill with sand or rocks? You could yell for the wife to stand on the center piece to hold it down. That’s all you need! Things you have around the house. Just find the tool that you need.
Sharon from Delaware, Kevin appreciates the question and hope this free how to video answers it for you.
Kevin really appreciates you watching. Please hit that “like” button, and he’ll see you next time.
Before you go, though, see him demonstrate how do what he says, not what he does ….