How I do it

I made a start on the 15 foot radius dish this evening and took some photos of the setup. Firstly, my dishes are made of two 600mm square pieces of MDF that I glued together - giving me a total thickness of 32mm. I then used a jigsaw set in the Triton table and cut the circle using a centre point.

I then used another square of MDF as a base board and partly drilled a hole at the center point. I put a drill bit or screw through the centre of the disc and then down into the base board. The MDF is smooth enough that it is fairly easy to spin the disc on the board below.



I mounted the MDF rails that I had routed to the radus curve onto some pine boards - giving the curve some strength to prevent it from bowing when suspended above the disc.

I used the corner pieces that had been cut of when making the discs and placed them near the edges of the disc. On these, I places some biscuts t make a slight gab and then clamped down the pine boards.

I ensured that the two rails were only seperated just over the width of my router base, to stop the router moving side to side.

I made the rails so they extended well past the end of the dish and that the curve continued past the centre point, considering the width of my router base.

My router has the ability to have two metal rods fixed into the base - the rods are the only parts that come in contact with the rails.



On the last dish I moved the router in and out, taking small cuts. This time (and I am finding a better result) I am turning the dish to make the cut all around the outside and then moving the router a little towards the middle before making the next cut.

I did however slice the disc with a few cuts into the center, giving me a few finger grips to turn the dish with.