MakerGear Forum

Hey all,

Wanted to see what the knowledge was of the industry since after I am done prototyping my patent stuff I wanted to build a business off of it. HOWEVER plastic molds for decently small, but simple parts seem to be around the $15,000 range (custompart.net). I have 15 different pieces that go into my assembly. So that is roughly 15 x 15 x 100= $225,000 without even anything else.

I've done my research and I can not seem to find anything without a mold that is not some kind of 3d printing form. Is there something for low volume products that are cost effective and still in the realm of manufacturing?

I'm currently just being proactive in my search

You can try looking into http://www.protolabs.com they do low volume injection molding. They have a nice online quote system too, cost is all going to depend part shape and size though.

-Steve

I was just on an interview and they showed me how they could make injection molds with ABS (derivative of ABS). It was pretty awesome to see.

You have some options:

• Prototype Molding (it costs less than regular injection molds since they can't run as many parts as a production mold.
• CNC plastic manufacturing (it's really inexpensive. It's not molded parts because they are milled from a block or blocks of plastic by a CNC machine. The form, fit and function are the same though.)
• Urethane molding. Most molding shops don't do this because it's for really low volume parts. Very inexpensive. You usually have ask if they do it because most don't advertise it.

~Scott

Scott, I pulled some of the advertising out of your post, it was pretty commercial for a first post. Lets keep it more generic for a bit.

Have you considered buying a 3D printer for prototyping? Some are pretty cheap nowadays.