Circle template storage?

[Denny Nebgen]

Okay, my lathe is a 16 inch lathe. I have circle templates from 3 inches to 16 inches that I store on a long screw on the side of a cabinet and held in place by a wing nut on the screw. This works but, taking the wing nut off every time I need any of the templates and removing all the templates in front of the one I need just to get that one off there and then doing all in reverse to put them back on is a PITA. How do you folks store your circle templates? I'm looking for ideas. Thanks in advance.

 

[Brian Nowak-Thompson]

I have templates that jump in 2" increments (4-12")--I just interpolate the in-between sizes and mostly just rough out the blanks for balance and easy mounting on the lathe. The 8,10,12 nest vertically to the left side of the table on the bandsaw. They are big enough to sit on the back rail and stay put. The 4 and 6" templates I glued a magnet to the back and they stick to the bandsaw housing.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

I have had several iterations of this. From a rack for all to fit in (collects chips), to several screws on wall (takes too much room) to a cabinet ( pain to open door and dig them out), to now have three wires (malleable) which I have bent with hooks on each end and all hang on one screw behind the Bandsaw. I take off the range of sizes I want and easily remove the one I need.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Mine hang on a long (3.5”) deck or drywall screw. The screw head keeps them from falling off. I suppose if your templates are made of thick plywood, a set can add up to a pretty substantial thickness. I’ve made mine from leftover 2mm and 3mm plywood.

 

[Randy Anderson]

For me, long skinny nail in the wall to hold them through hole in the center, 8" - 16".

 

[Jim Reynolds]

Carabiner. Actually two, the big circles are on a second carabiner.

 

[Dave Landers]

A 4x4, cut at an angle, sandwiched between some plywood (bigger piece on the back for hanging on a wall). There's a gap between the 4x4s for chips to fall thru, so the 4, 3, and 2" circles are on hung a nail on the side. Drilled a couple holes too for the awls I use to poke them on the logs.



You can see that the hole in the 5" disk where I used to hang them on a bolt.

 

[Denny Nebgen]

Thanks to all who have given input. Thank yo to all who gave input. I was thinking of a rack but the thought about collecting chips is spot on and something I hadn't thought of.
I don't want them too close to the band saw as my band saw is not where I mark my circles for bowls. The table is too small to have any room there. Some day I will get a real band saw.

 

[Denny Nebgen]

That too looks good, Dave. And a hole or groove to let chips out. Good idea.

 

[Randy Anderson]

Some of mine are actually cut from thick cardboard. Since I take them out in the field to mark blanks they can get stepped on, forgotten, lost in the chips, etc so with the tons of Amazon cardboard boxes that seem to pile up it's easy just to draw the circle, cut a new one and done.

 

[Dean Center]

There was a thread on here recently in which several people posted pictures of their circle cutting discs in their racks. It was a tangent from the original topic, and for the life of me, I can't find the thread at this point. If anyone can remember which one it was, you can see a few more ideas on storage.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

I keep mine in a hook. But, I hardly use them. I have the extra-large compass with a pencil. Sometimes I use it without the pencil, I scribe it and then go over it with a sharpie. When I go up the mountain, I take the compass so I can cut the huge blanks down to make them more manageable.

 

[Tom Gall]

That too looks good, Dave. And a hole or groove to let chips out. Good idea.

Or - make a box with 4-sides and put hardware cloth on the bottom. Better yet, just use two dowels for the templates to sit on leaving the bottom totally open. You can even angle them to accommodate the small to large sizes.