In a message dated 7/25/2012 12:22:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
I know the type of machine your talking about. I used to operate one at my first job (molding electrical connector housings). I imagine a small used injection molder could be found cheap, probably for scrap value. The issue is tooling costs. When I built the first TTS and had started my know defunct website selling tank parts. I looked into injection molding TTS track pads. I was getting estimates of 6 to 10K to produce the tooling. I dropped the idea at that point. One thing I learned from my retail experiment. Prospective R/C Combat tank builders are the cheapest bunch of SOB's on the planet :-).... Selling to this group is no way to an early retirement! i've been trying to keep an eye out on ebay in case one of them pops up, but for the most part i keep seeing them from the people i'll be buying one from. the 2 issues i'd have to keep an eye on would be the size of the mold it can handle and the volume the hopper can handle as to the cost of the molds, yes, i know they'll be costly but also know it's not like the rubber molds where i'd have to replace it as soon as 10 pulls or up to 65+. i can just pull it from the shelf and it's ready to go (one of the reasons i'm going to do it for some of my kits). with the injection mold i can also pop more parts out in a day than i could with resin and rubber molds and the thought of 5,000 to 10,000 pulls out of a mold does sound nice i know hobbyist like to do things as cheaply as possibly (i'm one of them) when possible, but i think in my original posting i said ........ (just looked an didn't quite post it right) it should have said that the final cost might not be that cheap. i was going to post these parts on a web site (some day) and possibly on ebay, both scale and non scale parts as i'm sure there are others out there that would love to make a tank but can't do to the lack of parts or the skills to make them, so i am sure (hoping) i could sell some other than in this group (almost said club). 6 to 10k to make the mold - seems a bit much (but what do i know - covering my ass). i have 2 or 3 that say they can do it the cheaper than most other places (it better be good molds, specially for what i'll be putting into this before i get to them). i also know i can make (still not sure if i even like the thoughts of this, but....) aluminum epoxy molds. i know i can make those molds myself if need be. i might try it, just to try it, but it depends on what temp is needed for the nylon (should be about the same for the plastic) Chris -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat
