injection molding question?

I plan on getting a few bids today on a short run aluminum injection mold. This is a small two part plastic enclosure with a living hinge, nothing intricate. I feel like I could be easily taken with a high bid. Anybody have any recommendations, or do's and don'ts? I'm new to this arena.

-- Rick Maston RM Specialties

I plan on getting a few bids today on a short run aluminum injection mold. This is a small two part plastic enclosure with a living hinge, nothing intricate. I feel like I could be easily taken with a high bid. Anybody have any recommendations, or do's and don'ts? I'm new to this arena.

-- Rick Maston RM Specialties

Rick,

I was looking at having a part molded for a production job I was trying to land. Picture a 1.125 dia x 1.25 long Delrin part with a counterbored hole for a shoulder bolt. I got a quote for a steel MUD base, 4 cavity mold, sub-gated with ejector sleeves, for $2500 with a 3 week lead time. This was a local mold maker. If you are interested, I can get his contact info. He just moved to Washington state and his current info is buried in an email I'll have to dig up.

Jon

You want to ask what they charge per hour of operation. I TRY to recover $37.00 per hour. Most times don't make it. I see some shops working at $15.00 per hour for very large runs.

Since you already have the mold, do you also have the resin? It would help reduce the costs if you can also supply the resin you require rather than have the molder guessing at it.

We also charge a $50.00 setup fee per run. That covers labor and machine adjustment time, etc.

Hope this helps, some.

Paul

You may want to ask on alt.machines.cnc as well. Bing is an injection mold designer and does quotes. He may be able to give you some insight.

Regards,

Robin

Just what we need (Rick Maston) jack off Ray Mueller owner of a MADE IN THE U.S.A. mold shop. I hope what ever you do for a living go"s to China to

I am refering to RJ not RM

Gak! Those figues and statements are questionably to say the least. The gap is not quite that huge, and to say that they build BETTER tools which produce BETTER products points at your own ignorance.

Perhaps for such a simple part China would be OK. Hope your product isn't too ingenous. Send those quotes over and you may walk into a store next year with that same product on the shelf. And of course you'll have to wait a couple months to get the parts here once they've been produced.

Regards,

Robin

Yep, the chinese are particularly respectful when it comes to intellectual property rights. Of course not, they're communists :^)!

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get. So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

I don't think $500 will buy the mold base, even in China. Of course if you buy a whole bunch of parts, they may eat 80-90% of the cost of the mold (or mold inserts) but then they "own" the part and just might find other markets for it.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Your to stupid for me to bullshit!!~!!!!> $25,000 for a mold from the

Since i have been doing this s*it for 51 years and own a 140 man mold shop I think I know A little bit about the trade??The cost difference ? we quoted $123500.00 and 16 weeks the slant eyes took it for $98750.00 and 6 weeks. The tool was 37 weeks late. We just finished reworking it at a cost of $71000.00 It is such a piece of crap they just gave us a P.O for$142000.00 and 8 weeks to make a new tool.If you buy a mold in China BUILT to your mold or SPI-SPE standards using D.M.E, parts with steel and heat treat cert,s and factor in travel freight AND- AND tell them the finial 1/3 payment will not be made untill you inspect the tool at your plant I can usually beat the total cost.If you tell them build me a mold like a lot of bean counters do and then have me quote a quailty U.S. made mold , then I don"t have a chance. Ray Mueller Mueller Mach.& Tool Co. St. Louis Mo.