Last time we checked in with [CrafsMan] he had bought a benchtop injection molding machine. This time, he shows off how to 3D print molds. If you have ever had to spend to make tooling for injection molding, you’ll appreciate being able to make molds relatively inexpensively.
To test his workflow, [CrafsMan] created a little 3D figurine and brought it into TinkerCad. From there he created a mold and used Lychee Slicer to print it using resin.
There was some manual finishing needed and that poses a problem since the two halves of the mold need to line up exactly. He mentioned he should have put alignment pins in, and we agree. We might also have put a way to bolt the halves together so you could, for example, sand the two pieces as a single unit.
The molds wound up in a mold frame and the results were impressive. We can’t help but think that the machine itself shouldn’t be that hard to create. It looks like little more than an arbor press, a heat chamber, and a piston.
If you want to see more about the machine in the video, you can check out the last time we checked in on [Crafsman]. Injection molding is clearly a handy tool — sometimes literally.
Even when I’ve not seen many of this guys videos. I recognized the puppet right away. Amazingly skilled and his tutorials on silver soldering (hard solder) helped me a lot in the past. I can see this being useful as well for another project.
Siraya Sculpt is fantastic. I really enjoy their entire lineup… there’s a photopolymer resin for practically any goal. Sculpt for making high temp molds, Tenacious for adding impact resistance/flexibility, Blu for non-brittle mechanical parts, Fast for cheap drafts or non-mechanical parts, Build for mechanical/engineering parts that need to be tappable or otherwise machinable. All of them formulated well for cheap MSLA printers. They’re a little spendier than most, but having used all of them repeatedly, I can vouch. Every single one works flawlessly according to their settings sheet in my original Mars and my Mars 2 Pro.
Hope this helps someone on the fence.
I need some help from you guys- I invented a 4 piece wall-mounted dispenser. I can’t seem to find a company to make 3D molds for me. Do you know who can do it, or should I get a printer and make them myself? I have the STEP files of the final components. Any help you can be would be GREATLY aprpeciated!
From a previous article (i think): https://community.preciousplastic.com/academy/build/injection for a DIY(ish) injection moulding machine. (My next project)
Really just watching a video and doing a small write up?
Good work…