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Plastic Molding

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Plastic Molding

Postby lastspartacus » Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:48 pm

Guys, its been so long since I've looked into plastics that I've even forgotten the proper term. Injection molding? Anyway, does anyone know of any US companies that offer the dies and casting for plastic models?

What I am looking to get produced are the absolute simplest of shapes, round flight stands and the pegs that go in them. I went to a resin caster about a commission since the required amount would likely be in the thousands, and he quoted me at a couple bucks a base/peg, and that's with a 20% discount!
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby mangozac » Sun Feb 22, 2015 7:18 pm

Yep, injection moulding.

The only company I'm familiar with in the US is Proxie Models. Ken is a nice guy, but seems to have more work than he can handle. I tried to get a space ship base design going with him a couple of years back but we had a lot of problems and in the end he had to decline.

Have you looked into any Chinese injection moulding companies? Either way you're going to be looking at several thousand dollars in tooling. The per unit cost will be dirt cheap though!
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby lastspartacus » Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:20 am

I just discovered proxie models, ordered some 15mm bases a couple months ago to proxy playtest with. Had no idea they did contract molding.

I'm very loathe to rely on China if I can at all help it, I'd like to exhaust all my options here first.

I'm aware that I'm looking at at least thousands of dollars up front. This would be for my ship bases/flight pegs, as well as the course ruler segments. Assuming I sold five hundred starter sets for my project, thats approaching twenty thousand ruler segments, and about half that of bases/pegs.

The only other options, that i know of, are resin, which has proven prohibitively expensive so far for such parts, and pewter, which could work for the bases and pegs, but just wouldn't work for the course ruler.

I guess a piggyback discussion would be to ask if there have been any advancement in mini productions lately that I'm not aware of. I know some things are made in acrylic, and I've heard of some new process called 'trollcast', which is spin cast plastic apparently, but I have no real knowledge of anything outside of what I consider 'the big three'.
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby horizon » Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:45 am

Have you looked into 3d printing these items? With an own printer (though this is a case of investment vs profit)? Or perhaps a company in your neighbourhood has one and you can make use of it?
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby lastspartacus » Tue Feb 24, 2015 8:38 am

They have been 3d printed. I got fifty or so resin prototypes of them. What I'm trying to do is Kickstart a game I've been working on for a few years, and the current costs of doing the bases and ruler segments in resin for mass production is pretty prohibitive for simple parts.
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby mangozac » Tue Feb 24, 2015 9:53 am

I don't think Proxie models look for contract work, as they are already plenty busy. I think I originally contacted them of my own initiative.

Indeed, for those quantities 3D printing is definitely not an option. But for $20k ruler segments if you pay $5k in tooling that's amortised at a cost of 25 cents per segment. The cost to produce each segment would surely be similar, giving an overall cost of $0.50 per segment. Is that feasible? Again, this is based on stuff I've had done for work in Hong Kong though. I can pass you on some contact details if you'd like?

I don't think Trollcast is really an option - it's not aimed at high volumes like this.

It's a shame your base designs are so much different to my requirements for BGH - I'd go you halves in the cost of tooling otherwise!
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby lastspartacus » Tue Feb 24, 2015 10:00 am

Yeah, darn me for being a special snowflake and trying to be fancy! :p
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby heribertovalle » Fri May 15, 2015 8:48 am

Say man, have you tried other manufacturing methods? Laser cutting will do the trick for the bases (You can cut acrylic) and for the stands. The stand pegs can, (if you insist on round pegs) be cast in clear resin.
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Re: Plastic Molding

Postby RTVMagik » Sat May 16, 2015 7:32 am

Hi lastspartacus, I work with many companies that do injection molding in the U.S. Private message me and I can give you three names that can do the job. :D
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