Wooden Circles

Today I experimented with wooden circles. I made two different sizes of 6 sided ones and one 12 sided. I started with some left over 2 by 4 pieces. I ripped them into roughly 2 by two lengths. I used my table saw to do the ripping. I just stood a 2 by four on edge, then I slid the fence over to it. Then I laid it back flat to rip it. That gives you two pieces of wood and one small sliver.

After I had my pieces of 2 by 2 done I got out my $20 Craigslist chop saw. I was going to make the six sided circle first. I had it figuged that a circle is 360 dgrees. That led me to divide 360 by six and I got 60 degrees. Well if you have used a chop saw they don't go to 60 degrees. But a chop saw set on 0 actually makes a 90 degree cut. Well I figured, in my head, that I could make the cut on the end and it would be 60. I would set the saw at 30. Well, as in most things, I should not have been figuring. I had the numbers right, but misunderstood the situation. It turns out that if you just make a 30 degree cut across the piece, it is actually the correct cut to make a six sided circle. If you want to make a 12 sided circle, use a 15 degree cut and make 12 pieces. It still doesn't make perfect sense to me, but as you can see in the picture, I did make a 12 sided circle. I will use the skill I learned to build something at a later time.

What I learned and it is just my notion, is that I can sit and think about it till the cows come home, but I have to do it to learn anything from it. Also what I set in my head with thought can be 180 degrees from the tue workable answer.