Well related to the discussion of the granule extruder I got thinking about how to make more exotic shapes that are high temp but don't require a lot of milling/machining. I will post later some cruddy sketches,or if i have time some cad stuff of what I am thinking of. But if you make the negative molds of a hopper you could easily imbed nichrome wire or nuts for attachment threads. This is not limited to just ceramics if some one want to make something with expoy instead that could be done as well. While for the cermaic you would need a kiln. but if those of use that can not get access to one all you need is to dig a small fire pit in the backyard to make one. The challenges of using ceramics is going to come down to what material to use. It needs to be liquid enough to pour into a mold with very few inclusions. that same problem will come up with the use of epoxies. Another thing i thought of is that the mold does not have to be released in the traditional way of cutting it off or splitting it. If it like the auger bit that I think some one is making, the mold can be melted off. YeaIi know waste of a mold but still and option.
Well, a traditional non-temperature-controlled kiln does not heat uniformly, leading to slightly deformed part, or a part you can't fit threaded rod through. Fortunately, it shouldn't be too hard to hard to make a temperature controlled electric kiln using nichrome and fire brick.
Well I was looking around trying to find some ceramics that might work for this i found one that even with out firing, just curring at room temp, might be stong enough to suit our needs. In fact without firing the ceramics the shrinkage rate is a lot smaller.
