4 ms·

Total cost to do this is roughly (2021 USD when I went through this) $1000-1500 USD to build out a buster beagle with COTS components $700 for an anycubic pho

Total cost to do this is roughly (2021 USD when I went through this) $1000-1500 USD to build out a buster beagle with COTS components $700 for an anycubic photon plus a an anycubic treatment chamber $300 for all the ancillary materials like resin (Siraya tech is a great option), mold spray, pellets (purchased off eBay), $30 toaster oven from Walmart to keep the molds warm, etc etc Design your molds in fusion 360 and print them on the Anycubic So if you are patient and have more time than money it is theoretically possible to have a full fledged injection molding machine with up to 3 cubic inches (50 mL) in your garage for under $2000 USD It takes a lot of time and research to do this properly however. Designing the mold has lots of caveats and is very custom work. This process is not at all as simple as operating an FDM printer, there are a ton more variables and failure modes that go into injection molding so you have to be able to create an environment where you control all of them. One thing that could probably save a lot of time and heartache for people on this journey is finding someone on fiverr to design the mold for you for a few hundred bucks rather than trying to teach yourself some hardcore industrial engineering concepts. But it’s doable, I read an injection molding book and was able to produce something that worked after leveling up my Fusion 360 skills. I do want to underscore that yeah, as your comment implies, even though recently the money component has significantly improved with innovative designs like these that use COTS components the time and difficulty part is still there. Injection molding is not for the faint of heart, it’s definitely one of the more hardcore industrial processes out there. I have seen the endgame of this journey so I am happy to answer any other questions if people have them

zer00eyz 3y ago
How long did your molds last? PTFE and PTFE with glass? What kinds of plastic.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
  Molds last between 150-500 shots depending on all sorts of factors in my experience. Once you have the design dialed printing a copy of the mold is not terribly expensive, however, takes several hours and perhaps $5-10 of resin. Buster beagle sells an aluminum casing to surround the mold that greatly increases the life of it since the vast majority of the beating it takes is from pressure from the clamps. Not sure if you are talking about the PTFE molding process or not but this is just straight single shot injection molding, though it is possible to design multi shot processes with this setup. It’s just more complicated. I used polypropylene which imo everyone should start with first because it’s by far the easiest to work with and pretty easily sourced off of eBay. It’s suitable for a wide variety of components for indoor use. For outdoor use you would want something like polycarbonate. I think working with polycarbonate would not be as lucrative in a home machine and here’s why: temp and pressures for polycarbonate are often a bit harder to achieve and the temps you need for molding polycarbonate are often at the upper limits of what these resins used to make the resin molds will tolerate. I think it’s possible though, but requires careful selection of a particular polycarbonate with the correct thermoplastic properties (such as lower melt temp) to operate within the acceptable ranges of your setup.
  - zer00eyz 3y ago
    Need more coffee before questions! Were you using a PTFE release agent? Like this: https://www.antiseize.com/PTFE-SPRAY-HEAVY-COAT-Anti-Seize-Lubricant-and-Sealant https://www.antiseize.com/PTFE-SPRAY-HEAVY-COAT-Anti-Seize-L... Polypropylene... Did this have (fiber)glass added?
    - SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
      No though I know people have literally just used stuff like PAM in the past. Mine was a purpose made mold release agent that I picked up off McMaster Carr. They sell a lot of different ones The polypropylene I’ve used does not have fiberglass added. Though there are a LOT of options for thermoplastics, both ready made and custom mixed/compounded. You really learn to just go straight to the data sheet when thermoplastic shopping because that has all the relevant info you need

zer00eyz 3y ago

How long did your molds last? PTFE and PTFE with glass? What kinds of plastic.

SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
Molds last between 150-500 shots depending on all sorts of factors in my experience. Once you have the design dialed printing a copy of the mold is not terribly expensive, however, takes several hours and perhaps $5-10 of resin. Buster beagle sells an aluminum casing to surround the mold that greatly increases the life of it since the vast majority of the beating it takes is from pressure from the clamps. Not sure if you are talking about the PTFE molding process or not but this is just straight single shot injection molding, though it is possible to design multi shot processes with this setup. It’s just more complicated. I used polypropylene which imo everyone should start with first because it’s by far the easiest to work with and pretty easily sourced off of eBay. It’s suitable for a wide variety of components for indoor use. For outdoor use you would want something like polycarbonate. I think working with polycarbonate would not be as lucrative in a home machine and here’s why: temp and pressures for polycarbonate are often a bit harder to achieve and the temps you need for molding polycarbonate are often at the upper limits of what these resins used to make the resin molds will tolerate. I think it’s possible though, but requires careful selection of a particular polycarbonate with the correct thermoplastic properties (such as lower melt temp) to operate within the acceptable ranges of your setup.
- zer00eyz 3y ago
  Need more coffee before questions! Were you using a PTFE release agent? Like this: https://www.antiseize.com/PTFE-SPRAY-HEAVY-COAT-Anti-Seize-Lubricant-and-Sealant https://www.antiseize.com/PTFE-SPRAY-HEAVY-COAT-Anti-Seize-L... Polypropylene... Did this have (fiber)glass added?
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
    No though I know people have literally just used stuff like PAM in the past. Mine was a purpose made mold release agent that I picked up off McMaster Carr. They sell a lot of different ones The polypropylene I’ve used does not have fiberglass added. Though there are a LOT of options for thermoplastics, both ready made and custom mixed/compounded. You really learn to just go straight to the data sheet when thermoplastic shopping because that has all the relevant info you need