Injection Molding --

[Burchtree]

Anyone have any good links or know of costs for tooling, etc. for having a small, non-mechanical proto made for injection molding? Or just any thoughts or suggestions on the process?

 

[Dan Gray]

Anyone have any good links or know of costs for tooling, etc. for having a small, non-mechanical proto made for injection molding? Or just any thoughts or suggestions on the process?

Mike I got a book from linsay books on the subject and it's a good how to do book.
it's a small one you can build yourself you do need some shop toys
to biuld it but as a maker I don't see you having a problem making one
mind over matter.. I'll see if I can find the name of it,, I got it a few months ago and want to build one myself.
for handle parts,
you can use colored oil jugs and many other plastics..C@@L

 

[Stag & Steel]

Burchtree, if you are wanting a prototype of something made, try to find someone in your area that does stereolithography. You can feed a computer generated 3D model to it and it will use a laser to generate a 3D prototype out of a fairly durable resin that can even function within limits. If I missed the point and you want to build a injection machine yourself, please disregard.
Jim

 

[Burchtree]

Don't necessarily want to build my own, just tired of the price of Tek-Loks and would like to see about getting something a little simpler done that can be used for IWB, belt, or molle gear.

 

[pso]

Micheal

At work, our mechanical designers have used Proto Mold (www.protomold.com) to do some prototyping of plastic parts. They can provide quotes based on CAD designs that you submit on-line. They make the molds out of aluminum instead of steel so the molds only last for something like several 10,000 parts instead of several 100,000 parts. The per part cost is higher too but the mold cost is lower and the mold turn-around time is shorter. There are restrictions on how high a part may be and I believe that they can only do "simple molds", not ones with moving sections.

As Jim said, you may be able to get some parts made through stereolithography. We have a (rather troublesome) machine at work that functions like a 3-D ink-jet printer that spits out blobs of plastic instead of ink. The resulting pieces are not particularly strong. Try contacting the Engineering Department of some local universities and colleges. One of my co-workers graduated from the University of Houston last year and he said that they had a stereolithography machine that the students used for some projects.

Phil

 

[btboone]

Another process that is used for prototypes is casting with urethanes. They are mixed in liquid form and poured into a mold. There is a wide range of different hardnesses and flexibilities possible. In this case, a master model would be made from anything like metal or plastic and used to make master molds. The process is best for small runs where the cost of injection mold tooling would be prohibitive.

 

[Burchtree]

I think the most costly thing would be having the mold made -- I have a fellow working on the part in "CAD-Eng" or something like that and will send it to that proto mold place. Thanks for the links!