First of all, my drawing is misleading. Its' a lot more complex then the the opening post. See below.

The shops I have gone into are telling me that they have to use a 1/2 ball bit and run it in .015" step increments. After that, to make it smooth, I still have to either sand it in the case of aluminum or grind it in the steels. They are quoting upwards of 20 hours at $120 in a 10 foot CNC....and they tell me that's dirt cheap.

I can NOT design the mold to suit the CNC and end mills, I have to design an attractive product and then blow my money/mind on machining the mould.

With my knee mill, I had a custom made carbide head ($700) that had the entire 4" profile and ran it on aluminum. Of course, I was sweating bullets hoping it didn't crack the carbide. I was told a profile cutter to handle stainless would make me cry. Plus, I have zero ability to change the design.

Yes, in the future, I can buy a Haas, but right now, our sales are peanuts and $40K will hurt a bit. Plus there is no real need for it because we are NOT a machining company, we are in a completely different field. If we don't need moulds, the machine will sit idle.

I am NOT a machinist, I am an engineer that is competent around machines so I have to "dig" to get all the information. I'm hoping/praying/wishing that I can do this in house in order to have the flexibility and also be able to make smaller runs without massive costs for each mould.

THANK YOU to all who participated. I am grateful for any info and direction!

The mould face is 4" wide, 2" high and runs 120"...in sections......

Attachment 245748