Types of materials other than Aluminum

A lot of 'Mini Mill' owners cut reliefs in Aluminum and it works well, but I was looking for other materials that I could use to cut figure heads with lettering around the edges finely enough to be able to get a rubber mould impression so as to replicate that figure with cold casting, resin or plaster of paris.

I'd keep the original so I could make fresh moulds when the rubber-moulds deteriate over time.

Someone mentioned 'Garlite' (did I spell it right) but thats equally expensive as Aluminum, so there must be other materials out there for this aplication surely.

Thanks a lot.

I'm not sure what you mean by "figure heads", but if all you need is a material capable of machining that makes something you can take a mold from, I'd suggest machinable wax. It's easy on cutters, doesn't make nasty dust, cuts quickly, and you can melt old patterns down and cast new ones (but make sure you allow for shrinkage in the new block, which is considerable.) One place to get it is machineablewax.com

There are lots of tooling boards out there.I expect a polyurethane version would suit your requirements Ren and Axson are two manufacturers to look out for.

Thanks for the reply Andrew
I've never heard of 'Machineable Wax' before and didn't know you could use that as a cutting medium on a mill.You'd think it would be like using butter with it swishing out in all directions once the spindle hit it. But I geust its more stable than that (rather a rediculous idea come to think about it).

Anyway I found a supplier here in the UK who sells it under the brand name 'TRYCUT' in a bunch of different sizes. I've email them asking for prices and waiting to hear back from them.

Thanks again for the lead.

As for 'Figure Heads' I ment the head and shoulders view of a person like Elvis of John Lennon so I could fit it on a framed board (Plaque) along with a short history of their lives.

Thanks Routalot.

Do you think 'polyurethane' would stand upo to the rigors of a router bit at 15,000 revs per minute. I'll have a look at the two manufacturers you suggested and see what they say in their pages about this medium.

Thanks again for the info.

Axson Prolab 65 will be fine with a router and there are lower density varieties.Not sure if they will deal with just anybody and the cost of a board isn't trivial.Knowing you are in the UK I would suggest getting in touch with these people and asking about the range they stock https://www.johnburn.co.uk/ .