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When I needed to cut a 4' circle out of the middle of a sheet of plywood, I fabricated a compass by tying a long-enough piece of non-stretchy string to a tack or finishing nail -- I forget which, b...
Answer
#1: Initial revision
When I needed to cut a 4' circle out of the middle of a sheet of plywood, I fabricated a compass by tying a long-enough piece of non-stretchy string to a tack or finishing nail -- I forget which, but it was something small enough that it wouldn't leave a mark on the other side of the plywood. To the other end of the string I tied a pencil at the desired radius. Working on the side of the plywood that I designated as the back, I found the center point by measuring, drove in the tack, had a friend hold it in place just in case, and walked around the board tracing the line with the pencil. Tip: do this at sawhorse or table height; you want to be able to walk around it and maintain consistent tension while doing so, not crawl around on the floor. Measure twice, cut once: after I had a line I could see, I measured the diameter in a few places to convince myself that any variability was within the margin of error that cutting it out with a jigsaw would produce. (Maybe there were better ways to cut it, but a jigsaw is what I had.)