[Mark Henry]

Originally Posted by billjam

As slodave already mentioned, don't try this at home!
I have 50 years experience in making and machining stuff, so I have a good understanding of what is possible and what's not, and the risks! This is definitely not for beginners.

In the picture below, its not obvious what the process is, but basically the flange on the plastic block is being used a a guide for freehand cutting the same shape on aluminium plate that is bolted to it. The small roller on the cutter follows the shape of the plastic block as the part is held against the cutter and rotated by hand.
It is scary if you don't know what you are doing, SO DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

My set-up was similar, sorry I can't find a pic.
Tricks are: a jig like above, to rough cut it just slightly oversize, apply constant pressure but not jam it in, never run backwards, eye protection mandatory and mainly for the phenolic you need a good size dust collector and mask.

Once the outside was done I cut the inner holehole on a lathe. You can see the clean cut of the outer shape, that was done on a router table.

To the OP if you are going to do more of this work you can often P/U an old manual table lathe for around $500, but get a good one like a Southbend or Logan.