DIY automatic injection moulding machine finished

The machine can now run automatically and unattended. If it encounters a problem it will stop. Still some finishing touches needed and I plan to make the software more sophisticated, at the moment it just runs in 'terminal' mode, I plan to add profiles for different moulds and have more control over the injection cycle.

[@smfdphil]

As a person who runs a injection molding company I am impressed. Not bad work

[@apieridgmail1515]

This is the Nicest Injection molding DIY machine I have seen on the net in my entire career. I've been an injection molder for 15 years.

[@wahabfiles6260]

"no audrinos here, just microcontrollers programmed in assembly" HOLY MOLY!

[@ray-charc3131]

I do like and used to use micro-controller in the application in this types of diy machines, coding in C and eariler in assembly. But ardrinuo is popular nowadays and readily and easily available, you can't avoid to use it. I did as well

[@tombirge8632]

That's a damn fine piece of engineering sir.

[@AndysMachines]

Well thank you!

[@chrishayes5755]

easily the most impressive home injection molding system I've seen.

[@chrishayes5755]

btw make sure you tell people to sub to your channel. you'd be surprised how much effect that has.

[@dfn808]

I spend waaaay too time on here watching talented people do their thing, but it's worth it :). Awesome!

[@720SLR]

Just tonight I found your channel, and can't stop watching your video , you are genius and joyful 👍❤ well done and keep going 👏 👍

[@angrygnome4779]

Must be an engineer. Nice job.

[@adinshankar7549]

conglomerating all electronics is not an easy task. Nice. Really a brilliant work of yours.

[@arslanraja6793]

I have to be born again to DIY this . So cool.

[@ethedona]

Wow, the noises it makes are great, it would be right at home in a big factory. I've been following this project and it has turned out great.

[@AndysMachines]

Apart from the air compressor, which always kicks in when I'm not expecting it!

[@tomcatmeow69]

@@AndysMachines perhaps design a hydraulic motor into it to cut the compressor noise out. Good design though . I'm a wire harness manufacturer in Canada and I'm looking into overmolding on wires to make power cords for the North American commercial consumer market so I need a vertically opposed machine.

[@AndysMachines]

Or I could just buy a silent compressor! It's usually not a problem, except when I'm trying to video the machine and the compressor kicks in unexpectedly 😖

[@gnatsum64]

I used to work for a company that did injection molding, and more recently I've gotten into 3D printing and CNC. I'm really fascinated with home garage maker tech, whether that is computer programing, playing with Arduinos, or building machines like this one. Having been around the big injection molds, I never really thought something like this might be possible. Thanks, and keep up the good work!!

[@l3d-3dmaker58]

you're programming this IN ASSEMBLY? omfg you're literally a magician lol, that's insane!

[@AndysMachines]

Not really, this is quite straightforward, just some maths for the PID routines for the heaters really, the display I'm using even has it's own character set so I don't have to program every letter byte by byte.

[@iliakuryakin]

@@AndysMachines can you write Rollercoaster Tycoon next?

[@AndysMachines]

@Ilia R I'll give that a miss thanks! 😁

[@skostasx]

Your design is great. Congratulations grand master!

[@serafincastilla]

I've been waiting for this for centuries. I'm so happy to see it working properly

[@azurehydra]

THAT IS SOOOO BADASS!!!! Freaking amazing work! Sounds great too!

[@AlexanderDiraviam]

I have to say I have loved watching this series, and it will help me a lot with getting my products closer to mass production. You are a brilliant engineer!

[@MegaChekov]

Well done you must have a nice garden shed all the best to you and yours from John in Texas

[@MuellerNick]

Very nice work! You paid a lot of attention to details as it seems. I'm quite impressed! I have been tinkering for years to build an injection molding machine. Your's is a great inspiration and pattern to start with. The only thing I would like to add is a feeder screw. This would help to more evenly heat the plastic. I see that you have put quite some effort into the nozzle to solve this problem. But my gutt feeling is, that the time the molten plastic travels through it is too short. But that's only a guess!

[@sammayersvarczkopf2108]

the amount of knowledge and expertise that went into this series is truly mind boggling. incredible machine, can’t wait to see what else you make with it

[@noviceartisan]

Wow, looks fantastically well designed! Love your DIY optical encoder for the plunger feed speed xD

[@Johandyman]

I literally just watched the other injection molding videos on your channel and was sad there was no follow-up :D Talk about perfect timing! Love your solutions btw, great stuff!!

[@AndysMachines]

You turned up at just the right time!

[@RoadRunnerMeep]

Awesome work, this is why I like DIY. Fabricate something yourself, the best thing about injection moulding is as long as you have the right mould you can make pretty much what you want

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! Yes, and making the mould itself is a whole other area!

[@tentandoumcover]

Awesome project, greetings from Brazil!

[@douglaspierce7031]

this is a totally badass build!

[@RedstoneClockworker]

I honestly wish I had this. I worked in an injection molding factory and I enjoy learning about the process. It did make me hate plastic more than I used to but this is a great way of recycling.

[@daviddaddy]

Incredible! Beautiful work! I really want a couple of those giant buttons!!! Seriously send me some please! Lol.

[@PreciousPlasticMelbourne]

Good to see it finished! Really nice features 🤩

[@bradselph6463]

I can't wait to see some more videos!!!! This video has driven me to design and start building a machine for my shop. Keep up the great work bud!!!!

[@snozcocram]

Absolutely an impressive mechanical device. Next, an automated trimming and stacking delivery system.

[@JanTuts]

I definitely don't need it, but I definitely do want one...

[@pierke110]

Andy, you have make a really nice mechanical, pneumatic, electronic machine. Thumps up!

[@SlattFpv]

Love your work !

[@MakenModify]

What a great project! I've built a manual machine but this is a completely different level. Might have to try to built a fully automated one too. Very inspiring ;)

[@mnowak3340]

Nice work !!! I am CNC freak, Your machine is great !!! Respect You did not use Arduino, I use USBAsp programmer without Arduino bootloader (code in C) too. Great work !!!

[@user-iw4pw9rv6u]

DIY molding machine! That is very amazing Your machine looks very cute even though its real exterior is not so modernized!

[@santoshbhatkar7867]

Excellent work. Love to see more machinnes and products...

[@haydenc2742]

Very very very cool! You so need to build you a silent air compressor out of an old fridge or AC compressor...not as much CFM, but if done right practically silent and can compress several hundred PSI with ease! Man I want one of those buttons :) Excellent design and build! Keep em coming!!!!

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! Good suggestion about the air compressor. I actually do have a small one I built from a fridge compressor, but it can no way keep up with the injection moulder! I would probably need 2 or 3 of the biggest fridge compressors I could find, for now I'll just live with the noise of the regular air compressor. I actually did try selling some buttons on etsy (incognito), but nobody was interested 😥

[@metzindustries3235]

Love the design. Giving me some ideas to use on my machine with the auger feed

[@fjs1111]

Really cool Andy.. I stopped using ASM except for when I have to do timing precise or optimizing of operations, everything else use a C or BASIC compiler for PICs. These days time is limited but still very valuable to know.

[@botbite]

Great job, beautiful machine. If you had time it would be awesome to have a video of the machine just cycling through it's process a few times with the focus on different parts of the machine. For example one shot would be just the clamping mechanism clamping and unclamping a few time, so we could fully appreciate it's movement and construction. Thanks again for sharing your project with us.

[@miszcz310]

This is really inspirational, thank you for sharing your efforts.

[@EmperorAst]

Very nice machine and presentation. PSUs from computers are my go to for powering electronics; all sorts of voltages to play with! Good to see I'm not the only using them for machines. I also like the concept of mold-in-mold (more visible in the previous video) but forgot to mention it; quick change to another mold. And of course, sensors everywhere. The more data the better the machine will know how and what it's doing! Great work.

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, I always save old PSUs. Even broken ones have useful parts in them, fans, capacitors, heatsinks etc.

[@lazguevara151]

I dint think there is another channel I find myself coming back to more than yours, im looking for that terminator fix!

[@integratedstm]

I manufacture injection moulding Machine ... I couldn't make this in my back yard .. in my factory yes... My compliments

[@gerixxx1]

This is crazy good, very nice!!

[@andymiddleton6431]

Crack! Admirable work man!

[@jaimebarragan5606]

BRAVO ! super machine !

[@homemadetools]

Nice job! We posted this video (and the others in the series) on our homemade tools forum this week :)

[@JulianMakes]

This is amazing!!!

[@deshorin3710]

Waw, salute for this job, applause for you sir

[@askquestionstrythings]

beautiful, just beautiful

[@geoffcrumblin7505]

Amazing home built machine.

[@kee.1984]

What a great design! I espacially like, that you use a Piston mechanism for injection instead of the usual injection screw. This should really help when using irregular shaped recycled material which tends to feed badly in screw mechanisms as far as I heard.

[@DFEUERMAN]

Incredible! To help with ejection, you might want to add a spinning nylon bristle-brush positioned by the sprue

[@siriusleto3758]

Great project

[@mrsiddique9286]

Good work 😊

[@husubaba7586]

Buy or DIY??? I'm just starting my research and this is the question on my mind. I want to produce a product that is roughly 5cm x 5cm x 10cm in size. If the business is successful, the annual production volume could be high, but for now the future is uncertain. I think I can do something like what you did in the video with a lot of research and effort (and I can also get support from you through comments during this process). I have very little knowledge of plastic injection molding and I don't know what criteria to use to evaluate the pros and cons for the "Buy Or DIY" question. I read that you review comments even for old videos, so I hope you will read this one and find it worth responding to. Thank you.

[@AndysMachines]

I review every single comment! If you are mechanically inclined and already have some machine tools (or access to them) I would DIY. You can also often buy, quite cheaply, old machines that require only a little work to get them running. But first you need to understand/learn what's involved in producing what you want to make, so you need to do a lot of reading followed by some experimentation. Be prepared for some failure and disappointment along the way!

[@husubaba7586]

@@AndysMachines I think I'll do it. I'm trying to concentrate on research right now. Thanks for responding. If I get stuck, I can write below this comment and ask for your help.

[@reforgedcriterion1471]

I am seriously inspired! It also shows that you don't need no $20,000 die to get the job done. I have hopes for building a cnc mill out of 3d printer parts yet! For molds anyway, and then I'm sure I could build the rest with my smithy.

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, you can often get very good results doing things simply, it just takes longer. Simple moulds don't even need a CNC machine, I've milled them with a manual mill, or circular shapes you can turn on a lathe and get a better surface finish than you would with a CNC mill. I converted a small bench-top mill to CNC for more complex stuff, but I see people using cnc routers built from aluminium extrusion doing very accurate work.

[@reforgedcriterion1471]

@@AndysMachines I'm sold. I've been looking at those 3018 cnc routers on amazon, they apparently get the job done, but require upgrades to work flawlessly. Apparently the stock router only runs at 1000 rpm

[@AndysMachines]

I've never used one of these types of cnc routers, though they are probably comparable to the first diy cnc machines I ever built (though probably more accurate than mine).You will want to take light cuts with small cutters, and for that you need a high speed spindle, 24-30k rpm, and for cutting aluminium you will need coolant, WD40 works well.

[@justshorts7926]

Please give full tutorial on this. Brilliant work.

[@aleethanone6904]

awesome! i dream of making stuff like this.

[@koatlsin]

This person is awesome .

[@backyardcnc]

awesome work! wish I had the time and drive to duplicate it!

[@otismelvin6551]

It is a very nice design.

[@ray-charc3131]

2 tons clamping force, watch out the safety, safety measure is necessary. It all goes automatically, you are superior ! Especially, you know to use toggle mechanism to increase the required force. If you can use larger pneumatic cylinder, higher injection pressure can attain, then bigger parts or parts of more complicated shape can be injection moulded

[@raufrauf1030]

Thanks for sharing

[@mehmetgul8686]

incredible

[@alexeyzdec2316]

Perfect!

[@cheesynuts4291]

Nice work! The stuff I build is never this advanced. To much thinking for me to add sensors and computers. Lol Hope you can sell lots of buttons.

[@AndysMachines]

Stuff I build is often too advanced and just becomes a headache! The buttons are more of a test, just a simple object I can use to get the machine dialled in, wasn't really planning on selling them but I guess they are interesting.

[@maitenmaiten5039]

Awesome work!

[@Bigredkarl]

Very good and instead of a plunger use a screw the screw compression of the plastic will create most of the melting heat needed

[@AndysMachines]

I did try a 3 stage compression screw in my previous machine, but couldn't get it to work reliably. That's why I went with the more simple plunger.

[@EngineeringSpareTime]

Nice!

[@Tudumanu]

awesome!

[@nathanielpoulter603]

this is awesome

[@Sky-nl9cu]

I liked your design, more optimal than others, where the screw is pressed. But why didn't you put the pneumatic cylinder on the matrix closing? It would be a complete beauty!

[@claudedicesare951]

Magnifique !

[@ActionBOX]

I am quite impressed with this machine. What would you guess is the total weight?

[@AndysMachines]

Maybe around 50Kg for the machine itself, a bit more for the stand and other parts.

[@MegaCadr]

Any videos of making molds? Great result, btw.

[@gregwmanning]

Impressive

[@martinlathuille7015]

Fantastic work! I would love to work on a simplified version that can be implemented on standard PP machine . Cheers

[@electronicsandewastescrapp7384]

amazing

[@matiasgoinheix366]

Awesome

[@gwheyduke]

Really nice work. I have been thinking about building a similar sized injection machine for small aluminum parts. Maybe heat the aluminum seperately then pour it in on "shot" at a time. I think the injection tube and mold would need to be pretty hot, perhaps heated with a propane gas flame.

[@AndysMachines]

That sounds more like aluminium die casting, yes I think it would work, the injection part would definitely need to be hot, the mould not necessarily as hot. If you haven't already seen it, check out Olfoundryman's gravity die-casting videos here on KZbin.

[@antonwinter630]

thats impressive

[@BrianCSC]

First of all, an excellent machine, I have followed this project for a long time and what a great development you have achieved. Segundo wanted to know if you are thinking of sharing the plans of this machine or the sketches that you have generated in the design process, it would be very useful for the people who want to make one of these.

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! Yes, I do have some plans for the machine on my Patreon, but it's not a complete guide on how to build one from scratch. I think the best you can take from my builds is inspiration and a few snippets of important information, but I can't teach an absolute beginner to build a finished machine. Then again, if you want to build something like this, you probably already have the skills necessary and a good idea of what's involved.

[@denismelnikov5756]

Perfect

[@user-wr7jb8ut4x]

Thanku it is worke very good

[@marianomontiel]

Amazing!!! Very well made. Would love to make one for much much larger pieces. How much did it cost to make?

[@th3engineer]

Just fantastic. Can you show the clamping mechanism in your next video?

[@AndysMachines]

The clamp is shown in more detail in the first video in this series: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXSop52ImdCdqLc

[@buddhimanivantha6719]

Cool.

[@gerhardgroenewald6560]

Wow. Like always

[@ericlotze7724]

Ya did it!

[@ericlotze7724]

I'm going to go post this on "Precious Plastic" 's discord channel, they'l love this i bet.

[@AndysMachines]

I did take a look at their discord channel a while back (via an invite) but it doesn't seem to work for me now, not sure why.

[@ericlotze7724]

@@AndysMachines they renamed for some goofy rebranding type thing (still same content+people) discord.gg/x5ueSMAp tell me if that link works; they can expire i think for security?

[@AndysMachines]

I click on 'accept invite' and just get a blank grey screen with bubbles floating around, which is what happened before. Maybe I need to register properly for Discord now. Yes, I know about the 'One Army' thing.

[@ericlotze7724]

@@AndysMachines ah ok, yeah you do need an account i think.

[@robsciuk729]

Well done! Can you comment on the fact that you used a linear actuator to clamp the mold, and a pneumatic actuator to press the plastic? Why not use the same mech for both?

[@AndysMachines]

Good question! The injection really needs both the force and speed of pneumatics, I could have used air to actuate the toggle clamp as well, but I prefer the greater control over speed and positioning that an electric linear actuator gives. Also I didn't have a suitable pneumatic cylinder for the clamp, but I did have an old treadmill motor and some parts to build a linear actuator.

[@leec2106]

I worked in injection molding off and on for years before I retired, I was skeptical that you would not get the pressure you would need. I am very glad I was wrong. I ran a machine that was a top feed like yours is, but it did have a screw drive like the horizontals you see most places today. Maybe you know this but dry your plastics, water in the plastic will cause you all kinds of headaches. So far I am very impressed, I look forward to seeing your next video. What is your max mold insert size of your carrier? It looks to be around 3.2 inch by 3.2 inch and 3/4 inch thick or 80 mm by 80 mm by 20 mm thick per side or overall 40 mm thick. Should be good-sized mold for a lot of things.

[@AndysMachines]

You're right, the pressures are a lot lower than industrial machines, with the current barrel I can get a maximum pressure of around 2500psi though I can still get good results at a lot less. Yes, I know about moisture in the plastic, thanks. The maximum size mould I can use is 100mm x 100mm (4in square). The ones I am using in the video are 20mm thick per side, but I can increase this by moving the clamp plattens outwards and can go up to approx 100mm total thickness.

[@wizrom3046]

Great machine! 👍 How do you sense the clamp force (tonnes)?

[@AndysMachines]

This is explained in more detail in the first video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXSop52ImdCdqLc Bascially I'm measuring how much the steel bars stretch when the clamp is closed by using a digital micrometer and multiplying this by a factor to obtain the tonnage.

[@alexchiosso221]

Wow! This machine architecture is quite distinctive and amazing. What you did with the micro controller is amazing too no question at all. I've worked while ago in the electronic retrofit of injection moulding machines and I've to say that you did something crazy good. The toggle clamp architecture for the open/close movement is very original designed but effective. The injection encoder in quadrature configuration is genial. The plasticizing area for the material seems to be short related to the size of the material feed. Have you tried with a different granularity size and a different injection speed? Sorry for the question I'm just curious. :-) Thank you so much for this piece of top level DIY engineering.

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, I've tried with many different variables. Originally I wanted it to use recycled shredded flakes (quite large and irregular) and though I did finally get it to work acceptably, it does work much better with pellets but really needs a smaller feed auger for these.

[@alexchiosso221]

@@AndysMachines Hi Andy. Have you tried to use a weighing system to feed the material? Maybe in this way you don't need a screw to feed. You can weigh the material and download it to the infeed hole [the material weight is related to the quantity you need to inject].

[@shootermcgavin3858]

Man o man this is awesome! Are you making this open source? I want to get started on one right away. I have a case design that I am 3d printing but want to DIY injection mould, and this automated machine is perfect. Amazing work! WOW!!

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! I don't really do 'open source' This project is too complicated for me to produce all the plans for somebody else to be able to recreate it from scratch. I think the best you can do is take inspiration and a few key details from my builds. I do have some plans and CAD models on Patreon for this machine, but just the clamping section/mould. The rest you can build to suit your own use and of course you don't need to make it fully automatic.

[@chuxxsss]

Looks like your optical sensor are out of a photocopier? Lot of hard work in that design.

[@AndysMachines]

Yes, they are standard optical switches I recycled, probably from an old printer. I always save parts like this for re-use.

[@lazguevara151]

I hope to one day be able to build a machine this cool, will this be used for any Terminator Fabrication? Keep it up man great content and your channel keeps growing!

[@AndysMachines]

Most of the rest of the Terminator will be metal, but there may be a few parts I could mould from plastic similar to how I did the iris blades for the eyes (which incidentally I'm going to remake in metal 😉)

[@lazguevara151]

@@AndysMachines Man I cannot wait!

[@TheMadMagician87]

Very nice work, well done! What do you intend to use it for? As I understand these things, the hardest and most expensive part of this (in the long run) is the production and maintenance of the mould(s). How do you plan to make mould(s), particularly if they need coolant channels or some such? I'm guessing you can't just cast and machine a mould due to porosity and the pressure exerted on the mould in operation, so presumably you either have to forge and machine or just machine them from bought stock? Irrespective, very good work on the machine, quite a cross disciplinary set of knowledge required to build that!

[@AndysMachines]

Thanks! I use for making small plastic parts of a few grams. I machine the moulds from aluminium either manually or on my small CNC. As the parts are small I haven't yet needed to add cooling, in fact I have to preheat the moulds to bring them to working temperature.