[chris_b]

Hi,

Complete newbie here, so please be gentle . I am looking into the possibility of producing an aluminium mold for use with something like the Gingery plastic injection molding machine.

The mold would be for what is essentially a 1/10 scale spoked wheel for a radio control car. This is partly a learning exercise and partly because I have not been able to find the design I want. Its only for my own personal use, so very low volume - basically a set of wheels to start with and then replacements as needed.

I would plan to design the mold using a CAD system and then get the mold sections CNC milled in aluminium.

The main issue I have at the moment is trying to visualise the type of mold needed to make this... with the wheel itself having a rim that the tyre sits in, it looks to me like it would have to be at least a 3 part mold (say back, centre spoke detail, front) all bolted together so I could remove the part once its been injected.

This must be a common problem with any kind of injection mold for a spoked wheel like this on toys etc, and yet I haven't been able to turn up any ideas on how to approach this online (via googling).

Can anyone offer any advice? Photos attached to give an idea of the style of wheel I am trying to produce (not this exact one, but the style is similar).

Feel free to tell me I'm wasting my time

Thanks

[keebler303]

I would say that you need 4 parts. The front, rear and 2 halves to go on the outside of the rim. It would not be terribly difficult but would be expensive to get machined if you do not have access to a cnc mill.

Also might want to check out the casting, mold forum on the site.
Happy molding

Matt

[chris_b]

Thanks for the comments .The 4 part mould sounds like a sensible approach.

I had a look through the moulding section on the site, but didn't find anyone trying to do a similar type of part? Bit of a newcomer here so didn't want to be accused of "spamming" by cross posting the same question in different forums. Might ask in the forum about designing 4 part moulds though.

As well as CNC I was also considering aluminium casting for the mould parts.... not sure yet if this is feasible.

Thanks