I am trying to get into doing some plastic mold injection. I want to make knife handles, using Zytel or anything else that will work and give me the colors that I like. I can learn to make the molds without too many problems, but I can't really find anything on injecting. If anyone knows of any websites or books that I could look at to get me started in the right path I would greatly appreciate it.

I would like to buy a used machine, but if the cost is going to be too great then I might just make one.

Can anyone help?

Check out the the SPE libarary. They offer a lot of books on molding but they are not cheap.

good luck. I don't think making your own molding machine is an option.

for a quick introduction see here (http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/mar97/mold_art/molds.htm)

it's not the be-all end-all resource, but it will at least introduce some basic terminology and some beginners gotchas.

robotic regards,

Tom
= = = = =
"I'm happy to report he's bright-eyed and tushy-bailed."
- - attorney having bailed a client out of jail

lindsay publications or the gingery press or whatever they are claled have a simplistic book desribing a machine made of angle iron and alumnium, a heater cartridge, and a manual lever ram design.. probably can be built for a few hundred $$. i dunno if it would be worth it though.. it could maybe make knife handles, but with 1 mold, the rate would be slow!

Injection machines are nothing more than glorified glue guns.....would be fun to build one, I think it would be difficult to keep the temperatures consistant without a PID. Tonage produced would have to be considered if you used hydraulics......I'm intriguied with the hand lever idea......KISS.
I think "Engle" has a web site, don't know how much detail you'd get off them, I have a few of their manuals kicking around if you have specific design questions.???

You could always consider using resin. That way no heat is involved and the stuff flows like water.
You can add colours to it as you desire. The moulds can be made out of latex rubber or even better silicon rubber. I have friends who make toilet seats out of resin and it comes out a treat.
www.trend.com.au then go and see the chow bowls and toilet seats

Thanks for all of the info.

I'm not wanting to mass produce the handles in any sense of the meaning. I make custom knives, and I just want to be able to try different handle designs. Right now I CNC everything from titanium and carbon fiber.

I have searched the net over and I can't find the information that I need. I need to know the terminology that is used in the molding industry so that I can understand what I'm reading.

Also, does anyone know of anyone who deals in used mold injection machines? Someone told me about a company, Barrett of Garrett, but I haven't found them yet.

AH - just a few? Use resin!

heres what you need: http://www.smoothon.com/

Or some other material supplier. You need to make a pattern - either CNC or hand carve it.

make a mold of the pattern- this can be easy or hard depending on lots of variables

pour a resin into the mold and let it harden - take out part - hand finishing

i can recoend this approach: get RTV Rubber from a supply Shop. Get the resin you want - lets jsut say your gonna make em clear plastic. get some clear plastic resin of a acceptable durability.

Now CNC your pattern from CAD drawings. take this patern, mount it on a board on a dowel rod about .5" round and .1-2" long. This will become your pour spout. its upside down. Coat the whole thing in petrolium jelly.. light coat - with a brush. this will pick up brush strokes! so be carefull to make it smooth.

Mix Up and paint on a coat of rubber. Repeat when cured. Next, add something like fine sand, cabosil glass powder, or some extender to make your liquid rubber thicker. gump a bunch onto your mold and smooth down. Get an even coating all around the handle - maybe 1/2-3/4in. Remember, you will be cutting this guy along 1 seam to make an opening to get your handle out, make one side thicker. Next step is to make a plaster mother mold. I like to use tuperware containers with some release agent to make perfect plaster molds-

take the coated handle and dowel rod off the board. put this whole thing in a tupperware dish about 1inch deeper than the rubber mold is tall. mix plaster and pour upto 1/2 of the handle. Let harden. mold release palster surface and mold-mix and pour plaster over the whole thing-let harden

the halves will release easily! its amazing the first time you do it.

if you want more info - i will tell you what products to get, then walk you through it. I have done this a bunch. i will take pictures and post them ina minute. ive got some good examples of this.

this process i mentioned can be improved by using a machined wax pattern, and silicone mold material to make the mold. no release is needed, and the part will come out with amazing surface detail. better make that wax pattern right!

what i outlined is a fairly basic starting point to how prototype parts are fabricated many times. even whena big cnc or SLA machine is used to make the patterns, some engineers end up mixing resin, degassing bubbles, pouring, oven curing, etc.. whats nice is: a DIY type can get the same results at home with minimal fuss.

the drawback:thes echemicals are expensive!

Heres some pictures. This is the closed mold. notice the shape of the tuperware?

This Is the inside of the mold. The yellow thing is the rubber mold. It was a small piece. A housing for a child protection prototype. It was poured in hard resin that took 2 hours to demold.

Try,

www.plastics.com

and click through to the forums.

BT1

Hey vac, you let us down with the pics. I now desperately want to see what is inside that rubber.

hahah! i knew that would be a problem. dont have the parts or pattern around. hmmm i could post a 3d rendering of the part... or take pictures of some other parts i have around.. i have some pics somewhere of a "parts in minutes" clear resin into a rubber mold of a prototype part for a picnic set i designed. lemme find em. they show the process better also.

i will start a new thread with the other pictures, here is a rendering of what that mold made.

The mold was of the small part with an antenna. for the models, i made the antenna with a nylon rod on my lathe. the parts were molded in some nondescript yellow resin and painted

oh dear, that thread was from oct 2003. i keep responding to old ****e. gotta stop that.

Hey Vac, keep on posting... I'm intrested in this DIY molding process. Where do you get the resins and chemicals from? Ever tried making a mold with autobody filler ie: "Bondo"?

BTW, nice website ya got :)

bondo can be usefull as a molding material. you can press it into a rubber mold to make positives, or you can use a bondo pattern to make a mold. bondo is sorta liek RENshape board in liquid form. We use bondo with REN models all the time to get them ready for primer and paintjobs.

I think that the easiest and best end product for knife handles would be to use a thermoset. You could use a hydraluic press with a mold. You would need an oven to warm the chunks of material.

You just heat place and squish. there will be more flash, but the process is simple, and the thermoset is more resistant to heat and abuse.

Lol @ you vac, I love your designs heaps. A child tracker, good idea. Ive found the best child tracker is our dinner table. They wont be far from that when they are hungry. Your idea is not that dissimilar from the crimainal tracker neck collars.

TAB - the only problem with that is the setup cost -your right though, a knife handle should be strong. pressure would really improve the process, but a high-tech resin will have very good properties also. it may cost alot more over time though. For prototyping a diverse array of handles I would invest in a vacuum pump for degassing, a tub of silicone mold material, a can of good mold release, several decent mold boxes "cope & drag". I have all of this, and can make models of aproximately any reasonable properties, from metal filled epoxy faux-metal parts, to low temp melt (upto 400deg) metals. and plasticfrom very soft silicone rubber upto very hard and brittle cheapo epoxy resin.

if you dont have a good CNC machine, you will have to pay thousands per mold set.. id rather make 10 molds out of silicone if im prototyping... also, if you need real parts, www.protomold.com could be interesting... do inhouse Rapidprototyping, then out source low-count production.

Yneeb- the design was requested. i dont know if i agree with the products concept. it had to be able to be delivered for $20 retail. so it was lowend. supermarket stuff. think asian manufacturing

:|
******** never paid either. "if we sell it, we will call you"

this process i mentioned can be improved by using a machined wax pattern, and silicone mold material to make the mold. no release is needed, and the part will come out with amazing surface detail. better make that wax pattern right!

what i outlined is a fairly basic starting point to how prototype parts are fabricated many times. even whena big cnc or SLA machine is used to make the patterns, some engineers end up mixing resin, degassing bubbles, pouring, oven curing, etc.. whats nice is: a DIY type can get the same results at home with minimal fuss.

the drawback:thes echemicals are expensive!


how do you degass bubbles

the basic procedure is to put the mixed mold silicone or latex into a vessel and then use vacuum source to remove the air from both chamber and mold material.

an 'inexpensive' chamber can be made with a spray gun paint vessel from harbor freight... if anyone is curious i will link the product.

Hi,
Try this link they also have agreat book, that explains how to make simple molds, You can find used machines on ebay, but they are not cheap, since they run on air and 110Volts.
http://www.morganindustriesinc.com/

Best of Luck
Frank

wow, MG, this thread is from 2003, can't believe it.
We are a mold maker (http://www.artetooling.com) in China, by the way.