#1 - Designing an Injection Mold

[@jonvannatto]

Looking forward to the rest of this series. Always love your content!

[@colbyhutzellfishingvideos4365]

This is the kind of stuff youtube was made for. Subscribed my friend!

[@JohnSL]

Thank you. I'm trying to make the type of content I wanted when I was just starting. I'm not an expert, so I'm hoping that at some point some experts will chime in.

[@brianCAD48]

Thanks John, there's always something I can learn by watching other peoples techniques. Look forward to the CAM and then operation of your Taig. Would also appreciate any pointers as to where great work ex small hobby type CNC machines can be viewed.

[@JohnSL]

Thanks. When I learned how to use my Taig about 10 years ago, there weren't many sights that showed using a hobby machine. I haven't looked recently, so I don't know what's out there.

[@bruno_lewin]

Thanks for having shared. Looking forward to the CAM part!

[@surjitsingh7750]

I am dai mekar 9891218677

[@mateoguillen6918]

How do you account for resin shrinkage? By the way, fantastic video! Great info both in learning F360 and how to design a mold.

[@drdrace]

Hi John, thank you for a terrific video! You mention a lot of practical advice/rules of thumbs, such sizing off of spru radius etc. Can you suggest any favorite books, resources etc. where you gained such knowledge?

[@JohnSL]

I wish I could. I get a number of books, but didn't find what I was looking for. The problem is that large machines have much higher clamping forces and injection pressures than my machines. So the advice doesn't fit very well. I just slowly picked things up here and there, and used lots of trial and error.

[@drdrace]

@@JohnSLthat's the problem I've been running into too/why I asked since I have a TechKits benchtop machine, which requires manual injection! I've been collecting your tips and why things are designed a certain way across your channel more recently, thank you! I'm also looking into using AutoDesk's MoldFlow Adviser 2019 simulator to start saving time/resources on trial and error for what it's worth.

[@akramazgal4788]

hey you can find some interesting rules here :medium.com/jaycon-systems/engineering-guidelines-to-designing-plastic-parts-for-injection-molding-1c554a4545be

[@akramazgal4788]

@@JohnSL Hey, good job for the mold design however you haven t scaled the part as you known plastic shrink so depending on your plastic type you have to oversize your part. 2 - your part thickness is not uniform which gonna cause sinks in thick areas. Solidworks have a mold design module that offers you all these steps I advise you to use it. the way that you use 360 fusion for the mold is clever however, with a more complicated part with a non planar parting line it is not possible it will be better to use surfaces to design the mold.

[@JohnSL]

@@akramazgal4788 Thanks. All true. For most of the parts I design, the shrinkage isn't an issue. I use Polystyrene and ABS, and they have a shrinkage of about 0.5%. That's well within the tolerances of these parts. As to sink, yes, that's certainly a factor. For other designs I take that into account. In this case I was not worried about that, so I took a shortcut. And as to more complicated molds, I have made molds with curved parting lines. But most of my molds have a planar parting line, which does make things a lot easier. I have a mold I'll be working on, probably at the end of this summer, what will most definitely not have a planar parting line. I'll do a videos of that part and mold when I start to work on it.

[@rbondy008]

Great video, I have a couple of questions. 1: why are the rails reduced at the ends? Don't you want the flow into the mold to be as quick as possible? 2: Why do the rails have 90° bends, why not 45°. Again just thinking about filling the mold asap. Thanks

[@JohnSL]

This is pretty common gate design. The idea, as I understand it, is to have a short section of restricted flow that will cause shear in the plastic. This helps heat the plastic a little more and makes it flow better. So the 90° bend allows the plastic to go directly into that small gate. Using a different angle would require the gate to be longer, which would be less effective.

[@rbondy008]

@@JohnSL Thanks

[@bijenbasumotary5607]

,,s,

[@KhaledQweder]

Useful tutorial. Thank you John.

[@J87513]

Hey everybody I got a quote for a mould for a machine the same as the injector that he is using and it seemed pretty high, I even asked another die maker and also came in around same price. It was about $5,000 USD for a mould for Oakley style sunglasses. What takes so much time and cost? Is it the CAD design? I myself just started to learn Fusion 360.

[@mateoguillen6918]

Design + manufacturing + experience, it is a very niche market to create these little molds, so they need to be compensated for their expertise and time investment. I’d say get the most out of your money and ask many questions 😊

[@nanadee5196]

Remarkable work 👏🏾

[@Cmtb125]

I just listened to you on the Within Tolerance podcast. I notice that you keep saying and repeating, “this is just a hobby” for justifying and the reason behind not buying the more expensive tooling , vises , etc. love the podcast, but this is bothering me. Indeed it seems as though, this started out as a hobby for you, but you can no longer call this your “hobby”. Occupation maybe. You have shot past the “hobby” phase of CNC machining and its totality. Be proud. Own it. Help the younger generation learn. & continue to show us and make videos, and you’ll have my support. Congratulations on your success. 95 percent of people don’t have the balls , or the gumption to do what you have done. God bless.

[@JohnSL]

I'm curious to learn more about your reaction, as it sounds like it's different from what I was thinking. There are three things that were in my mind. First, this is a hobby for me and I do not want it to become a job or occupation. I have a well-paying day job in the software industry that I love more than machining. Second, the calculus for deciding what to buy is definitely different as a hobbyist. These are not investments that will pay for themselves financially (my "income" from my hobby last year was about $3K). So my decisions are based more on how much joy or satisfaction I'll get buying something new vs working on projects that don't need it. And the final thought that was in my mind is that I keep getting comments from people telling buy this thing and it will improve your profits or allow me to grow my business. But neither one of these apply to my as a hobbyist. I can definitely see, thinking back to the podcast, that I didn't portray that thinking. And I'm wondering if it might be an interesting video to cover those topics in more detail. Now, if the conversation were about amateur vs professional level, then I hear you. I do tend to push myself to be good at what I do. Still, it is a hobby for me.

[@ntcsie9530]

Excellence video, a lot of precious information. I hope you can do some more video for projects like this. thank you for the video and tips.

[@samsmak]

John, do you ever help out with mold making and the Morgan Press setup? If so, can you link a good contact for yourself. Thanks very much.

[@JohnSL]

Yes. I know you've sent me some emails, and I'm catching up now. So will get back to you in the next day or so. I was pretty burned out from my day job and just got back from 1-1/2 weeks of vacation.

[@samsmak]

@@JohnSL Thank you!

[@jeduardob2060]

Thanks for the videos, I've learned a lot from them mainly about CAM. Now, I know that I know nothing.

[@geoffcrumblin7505]

How did you decide where to place the gates? It looks like you have created a weld line between them

[@JohnSL]

Yes, there is a weld line. With the machine I was using at the time, I didn't really have much choice. I didn't have enough injection pressure to fill all the ways to the end with a single gate, so I tried to put the gates in 1/4 of the way from each end. That way each gate would fill 1/2 of the mold in about the center of that section. If I were to make this mold today, I'd make it for the Morgan and use a single gate.

[@ntcsie9530]

I have a question for asymmetrical molding, I am currently designing a mold but the part is asymmetrical. if I used the 1/2 molding method like this then I won't be able to take out the part, it will be staying inside the mold. Is there away you can make the mold asymmetrical?which means 1/2 part of the mold is different than then other. thanks

[@hoyoungmei9354]

Professional mould maker whatsapp/wechat/mobile:[phone]

[@bluesinter]

Thanks. Great video. I almost started using my mouse, your technique is so similar to mine.

[@mrechbreger]

John, are you using some kind of tilting vise with your CNC?

[@JohnSL]

It's a type of vise called a screwless vise and it doesn't tilt.

[@mrechbreger]

@@JohnSL I have the same vise; the question was if you have some tilting vise at all. Because I had to mill some 45° slots (for sheet metal bending); Anyway I almost forgot that I can tilt my milling head and that just did the job on my side. All my parts are successfully folded with the die which I just milled 4 hours ago. Certainly I could have designed the slot in freecad and exported the g-code but using the facemill it was quickest I feel.

[@AIRpursuit]

can the mold be designed using other software such as 3ds Max or Rhino? And does the molding factory design the mold for the clients(designers) and is that an added service with extra cost?

[@JohnSL]

Yes, you should be able to. I haven't tried it. But you'll still need to use a program like Fusion 360 for the CAM to create the tool paths for milling the mold.

[@sarahwu5181]

Hi ,we are injection mold manufacturer for 26 years,contact [e-mail]

[@darkshadowsx5949]

I wouldn't use 3ds max or rhino its just one more export import step fusion 360 tries to be an all in one software and you can get a free license for hobby use. its pretty easy to model in fusion 360 and i've used modeling programs like 3ds max, blender, google sketchup.

[@bobweiram6321]

Are you working with the kid who just launched an open source pick and place machine?

[@JohnSL]

I'm not. Can you tell me more? There have been other open source pick and place machines in the past.

[@bobweiram6321]

@@JohnSL His name is Stephan Hawes. He's an bright, energetic and enthusiastic kid who designed and built his own PnP machine. This is an older video, but it gives you a good intro. In his latest videos, he moved to Pittsburgh and started building the kits for sale with a friend. He later got an amazing lucky break. One of his customers liked his product enough to invest money into it. I'm sure you know who the investor is: Joel Spolsky, the cofounder of StackOverflow. kzbin.info/www/bejne/faW9lKF_es5qZ5I

[@frittenpeter]

good stuff

[@firstgabion7741]

very useful, thank you so much Sir.

[@jawbonetwmold]

Thanks

[@robertmawanda]

Hallo JohnSL, I would like to inbox you. How do I get in touch with you?

[@JohnSL]

There is a button on the About page of my channel.

[@muthukrishnanj3781]

Is PDC die design similar to injection mould die design...anyone can clarify my doubt

[@tonyperez5583]

I’m in need of a mold for a product I invented which patent pending but I am intimidated by the high prices, is there a solution? I am even willing to have manual mold then I can recicle the plastic, we have to start somewhere.

[@JohnSL]

I'm going to start researching that soon. One of the projects I'm working on with a group of others is a pair of Wi-Fi throttles for model trains. The cases for both of these are larger than I can run on my machines, so we'll have to have someone else make the molds and parts. I'll create videos as we progress, starting probably in a month or so.

[@daisywang8714]

We are molding maker, if you need to produce molding, you can contact us. This is my E-mail: [e-mail]. And this is our website: www.mold-town.com.. We are from China.

[@daisywang8714]

Not only we can manufacture molding according to your design, but also we can designe according to your requirements, then we can produce it.

[@darkshadowsx5949]

a cnc machine can cost more than a small mold. if you dont know how to use program and use a cnc machine its an adventure...

[@StonegateCreations]

Tony Perez, I make injection molds and can do the molding as well I am located in the US. Feel free to contact me at [e-mail] and I'd be happy to help.

[@rajkishorebehera7489]

Could you please share the solidwork cad models for the various injection molding parts.

[@johnandrews9433]

make them yourself beggar

[@حمیدصحتنژاد]

oky...

[@ypmould]

Nice video. we are middle mold maker. Can we have a chance to cooperate with you?

[@gatyi28]

Cool. I already learned something :)