Really Cool,
Worked in machine shop 17 years, and know excaltyl where you are coming from.

My dad was tool and die about 30 years ago, and he use to make molds for piston rods, he did it all with belt driven machines, and files. He sure was good at it. Now days, people have no idea
what CNC machine can do compared to those days.

Just happen that we got a order to build a mold similar to what dad
took him 4-6 months to make. I watched the progress on the mold
similar to what dad make, from drawings to programing to shipping it took them 2 weeks.