Fix these scribed circles?

[Dave McGeehan]

I recently made a missing top, based on an original drawing, for an old clock. As you can see I had trouble freehand-carving the circles. Normally I scribe circles using sharpened dividers held with a wooden handscrew as shown in the pic. But I wasn't able to cut the circles deep enough so I decided to finish then using a V gouge. Any ideas how I can recut these to make them more balanced before I stain the piece to match? I'm thinking of using a wooden base with a stylus as the pivot point and a sharpened screw as the cutter.

[Phil Thien]

I don't know if it will fix it or mark it worse, but...

I had occasion to do something similar and I used one of the fly cutters in my drill press. I didn't turn the press on, I simply removed the belt and rotated the bit by hand as I lowered the bit with my other hand (workpiece was clamped to the table).

It worked pretty well.

[David DeCristoforo]

If you can remove the piece of moulding, you can make a template for a router fitted with a guide collar and a "V" groove veining bit to recut the circles. This would have been "the best" way to do them in the first place. Make some "practice" cuts in scrap first. The recut circles will have to be deeper than what you have now in order to fair out the circles.

[Dell Littlefield]

I have a dial cutter that uses a bit of the pop-off blade of a small utility knife. I bought mine from one of the clock supply houses and it is very inexpensive. It will cut almost a quarter of inch deep if you take your time. This one looks better than the one I have but might help.

http://www.timesavers.com/catalogmain2.asp?ProductID=13477

[Dave McGeehan]

Thanks for the responses. Dell, I like the looks of that tool and I think I have something similar that I can modify to hopefully fix my problem.