My company makes highly detailed scale model replicas. While we already do all of the design work, we want to bring toolmaking, production and assembly in-house.

Our product is low volume and small, so we do not need large, expensive machines but we do need a very precise CNC mill (at least 4 axis and repeatability of at least 0.05mm) or possibly a small EDM sinker. Our existing suppliers are quite reluctant to help as they would lose business, obviously, but we are determined to make this work – even if we have to start relatively small and cheap to begin with, possibly with used machinery.

I have many questions, but it may be better to itemise them and tackle each one as we go.

1. CAM. We are fine at producing production-capable CAD, but we have no idea how to convert that to reliable and excellent quality CAM paths. We use SolidWorks for design. Should we get a plug-in for SW or use a standalone package aimed specifically at the task?

2. CNC/EDM. Our work is very finely detailed and often on curved surfaces – features can be as small as 0.1mm in some cases, but typically around 0.3mm. Because of low volumes our tooling is aluminium. Can we get a good quality CNC mill capable of producing finished tooling at a reasonable price (time-on-machine is not an issue) or should we look at EDM from the start – and if so, how do we produce the electrode?

3. Injection moulding. I have a shortlist of a couple machines I'm interested in, both with adequate shot volumes and clamping pressures. If anyone has any recommendations I would be happy to hear them.

Thank you for reading, I look forward to the advice.
Steve