How to route circle on box top

[Philip Florio]

Hi,

I have a jewelry box that I'm making. The top is about 5 x 6 inches and I haven't attached it to the box yet. I would like to add a circular inlay to the center. The inlay would be about 1.5 x 1.5 inches.

Any suggestions for a simple and fast technique?

Thanks,
Phil

[Mike Henderson]

If the inlay is a full inlay - that is, it covers the whole 1.5" circle, I'd use a forstner bit to cut down for the inlay. You'll have a "hole" right in the center where the center spur of the bit is but you can fill that with epoxy before doing the inlay. Otherwise, you can grind that center spur off before using the forstner bit (I don't like that approach).

If what you want to do is a ring type inlay, I'd need to know how wide it is before I could give you suggestions.

Mike

[Steve Jenkins]

use a hole saw to make a hole in a piece of 1/2" mdf that is the size you want then clamp it on top of your box lid. Use a router bit with the bearing on top to rout out the waste. You can get router bits that are only have about 1/4" depth of cut below the bearing. They work really well for this type of thing also for cleaning up dado bottoms.

[Philip Florio]

Thanks Mike & Steve,

After posting I realized theForstner option, so I made a simple 1" inlay.

I'll go with the MDF option next time.

Thanks,
Phil