say you FDM printed something on your 3D printer in, say, regular old PLA at 200deg C

and say you also had an aluminum mold of the same model

could you put that print in that mold and heat the mold to the edge of its glass point and blow compressed air through to iron all the outer surfaces to the contour of the mold, like blow molding but way slower and at lower temp with all the wrong materials?

sometimes my brain goes unsupervised for too long whilst watching robots make toys.
still kinda pissy that I haven’t come up with a good way to make aluminum molds using a cheap 3018 CNC router with a beefy upgraded spindle and some aluminum-rated end mills but can only be pissy with myself for not spending any more time working on it since I got the stuff and did a couple test cuts in wood.

@djsundog

Aluminum is pretty easy to mill.