INJECTION PLASTIC BENCHTOP MACHINE
Hello, friends.
You have an amazing forum, I've never seen something like this. Congratulations to everyone!.
Well, I need your expert help. I need an injection plastic benchtop machine ti make my onw hi quality guitar picks (I'm musician).
Where can I find it? (no too expensive, but good quality, please)
What's best plastic to make a 3.0mm hard pick? (resistant)
Thank you all.
Best regards.
Build your Own Injection molding machine book
Hi-
I went and bought this book a few weeks ago and have been looking it over since then. Though the plans look simple, there are some part of them that look like they need a once-over to really work well for people like those on this community.
First off, it calls for some fairly difficult-to-get parts. It uses a cartridge heater setup. Finding the right cartridge heater can be difficult- its like having a motor in hand and trying to find a decent controller for it. Now granted, I'm not an electrician or HVAC guy or anything, so I'm not an expert, but knowing what the 'tolerance' (for lack of a better word) is for these, its hard to pick out the right one. It calls for a 250watt cartridge heater that is 3 inches X .625 dia. I've been trolling eBay for more than 2 months now, and have yet to find exactly that. Lots of heaters in higher wattages, many in smaller and the few that hit the 250 watt range are out of the tolerance for size. If I knew if larger wattages were OK, this might not be as big of a problem, but the book gives no range for workable wattages. I suspect higher wattage would be OK, so long as you have a decent thermostat.
...Speaking of which, the thermostat the book recommends is also hard to find. The book has a source or two listed in the back for some of the parts, but none of them seem to be in business. The author also said he was keeping a bunch of each on hand for sale through him to hobby people who buy his book, but they don't seem to be for sale anymore.
Does anyone have any suggestions about any of this? His design seems to be workable- if you can lay hands on the parts, at any rate. I know FigNoggle has a page on his site where he's describing working on an inj. molding machine design, but as of the last entry, it seemed as if it was having some issues with workability.
-Farasien
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INJECTION PLASTIC BENCHTOP MACHINE
Hi,
I was trying to do the same thing! So I purchased this machine:
LNS Technologies High Tech Products for Hobby, Edcucation and Business
And a friend with a CNC machine made me an aluminum mold for a guitar pick.
I tried various plastic materials and eventually had success with Acetal (Delrin™)
Attached are photos of some of my experiments molding plastic parts with that machine.
Hope this helps.
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INJECTION PLASTIC BENCHTOP MACHINE
Yes, the guitar picks were made in an aluminum mold using the drill press mounted injection machine from http://www.techkits.com/pim.
A friend with a Tormach CNC mill made the mold for me.
Attached is a photo of the mold
INJECTION PLASTIC BENCHTOP MACHINE
Pete,
One thing I've learned while experimenting around with injection molding, is that plastics like acetal and ABS pick up ANY machining marks and reproduce them on the surface of the plastic part.
Interestingly, softer plastic materials like PVC or EVA don't show the machining marks.
I know there are lines that look like ridges in the photos, but they are simply marks left from the CNC machining. If you run your finger over the surface of the mold or the guitar pick, there are no ridges and the surface is actually smooth. It's just a visual effect from the machining.
I guess a mold would need to be polished (like you mentioned) if the parts are showing unwanted visual marks.
INJECTION PLASTIC BENCHTOP MACHINE
Pete,
Yes, I did try to remove the machine marks on 1/2 of the mold. But it is still not a nice "mirror" finish. There must be some tricks that professional mold makers use.