whit3rd on Thu, 4 Jul 2019 15:36:44 -0700 (PDT)
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at 9:54:37 PM UTC-7, pyotr filipivich wrote:

thinking of doing some small (and I do mean _small_) milling, to
make a set of molds for casting type for hand setting printing (aka
"Letter Press").
The molten plastic ink jet printer I helped develop in the 1980's
could 3D-print mirrored and color-separated (CYMK) offset printing
press plates.

Which is so totally what I do NOT want to do.

If I wanted build a printer, I'd have asked how to do that.

One can get job-shops to do the 3D printing; the old IBM typeballs were
nickel-plated plastic, seemed to print entirely adequately.

Or (in linotype fashion) you could carve some soft material to make a matrix,
then cast type against that. Instead of a mill, the matrices could be (old technology)
produced with a pattern lathe.

Milling anything hard, and keeping tight tolerances, is a difficult combination. Clamping
any workpiece as small as a letter is a project all in itself.

From what I've been reading: there is an Iron letter "punch" which
then stamps into a softer metal (copper) which then serves as the mold
for the lead type. As they were carving punches (to make coins) in
Mainz in the 1300's, I'm going to assume I can short cut a few steps
and use modern material science to my advantage.
--
pyotr filipivich
"With Age comes Wisdom. Although far too often, Age travels alone."