Idea: Creating a simplified version of a traditional hand-mold that faithfully served 15th-19th century typefounders and printers. This will be a centerpiece of my portable foundry. The plan is to cast some ancient Cyrilic and Glagolitic type.

Method: To accomplish this futile and fruitless task, I've built a CNC Mill, to aid myself in the creation of a hand mold, and engraved some custom matrices (based on a 13th century Russian font).

Testing my new CNC mill. In preparation for casting letterpress type. Based on Proxxon MF70, running GRBL on Arduino board. 3-Axis NEMA 23 Stepper motors. Custom wooden mold for casting a type metal* toy soldier in a portable foundry. *Alloy of lead, tin and antimony This was just a machine test, on reflection, wood isn't an ideal medium for something like this. Aluminum would work much better. Roughing cut and drilling was done with a 1/8 flat end mill. Finishing was done with a 1mm ball-note end mill. Feed rate: 320 mm/min. Plunge rate 100mm/min. Total machining time for 2 roughing cuts, 2 finishing cuts and 2 drilling passes = 1.5 hours. Software used: 3D Studio Max (for the modeling), Vectric Aspire (for calculating toolpaths), Universal G-code Sender (for controlling the machine, and supplying the code). Casting information: Lee Precision melting pot. Type metal (75% Lead, 20% Tin, 5%Antimony). Thermal setting 7 (760 F).

Now to engrave and cast the rest of the font!