[Jianju]

Hello, folks, my name is Jack & I'm here to learn more about injection molding. Specifically, I'm trying to learn more about making toys: action figures & toy soldiers (like the old plastic army men.)

I've made simpler molds for medical parts, but never before anything "organic" in form. One of my first thoughts is that the parting plane would probably need to be "jogged" in places, rather than being simply planar. I expect a good wire EDM would be the solution for this.

That problem being solved, I imagine a YAG laser would be ideal for engraving fine detail from a CAD model. Still, I don't imagine that's how it was done in the old days.

So really I have two questions:

1) How DID the old-timers make these things in the old days? (Somehow I doubt they used CAD models & YAG-lasers)

2) Assuming we're talking about mass (millions) production (steel!) & not a small sample run, what's the best way to do it now?

[underthetire]

Old timers were artist, not computer jockeys

I've seen it done, once. Not a army figure, but not to far off. He used a mill to rough out, a rotary tool, and all the fine detail work was done by hand with tool steel scrapers and picks. Just like they do coin stamps. Amazing stuff.

For yours, with today's technology, cad file- cnc mill electrode- sinker edm.

[Jianju]

Old timers were artist, not computer jockeys

I've seen it done, once. Not a army figure, but not to far off. He used a mill to rough out, a rotary tool, and all the fine detail work was done by hand with tool steel scrapers and picks. Just like they do coin stamps. Amazing stuff.

For yours, with today's technology, cad file- cnc mill electrode- sinker edm.

Thanks for your reply, UnderTheTire! That makes sesne to me, having used a rotary tool a LOT for chasing tin soldiers. So the approach you descibe is exactly what I had imagined, yet I still wonder about the tricky parts along the parting line: (e.g. where the legs are bent) Would you create drafted inserts (made with a wire EDM) & apply the ram EDM to those inserts? I'd rather plan this out in advance as much as I can.

Though I agree that these machinists of the more traditional method were definitely artists, I feel compelled to add that the "computer jockeys" of today need every bit as much artistic ability to create a beautiful object within a computer. It's just a different medium.