Thankyou all for the informative replies, I never for a minute thought this would be easy, Adie R the temperature range is 100 - 300C depending on the type of plastic and size of mould, so that is comfortable under the brass melting point,

One other question aprroaching it from a slightly different angle, does anyone on here have a proxxon (or similar) and what have they managed to achive with it. I am guessing it is essentially a Dremel type motor/chuch bolted to a xyz table stand?