Thread: Need a mold made (CNC lathe work), for hobby project

For a hobby project, I'm out to make this wheel out of urethane. I redesigned it from an original using Autocad, and as it's my first Autocad learning project, I'm very happy with how it's turned out.

I've completed the design of the wheel and the main mold. There will be a plug for the rear of the mold that I'm working on now.


I'm looking for someone who can make this mold for me out of aluminum, and at a fair price as this is only hobby work. I can't afford to spend a lot on this project, that's why I went to the effort to learn autocad well enough to design the parts.


Due to the depth of the cavity, I can redesign this as a two piece mold if needed, so the angled front section is a separate piece to make machining easier. In that case, this will end up being a 3 piece mold in total.

The sharply bevelled back surface is lathe turned after molding. It's not a molded-in feature.

Here are three autocad renders. One of the wheel, one of the mold before adding a plug for the back,
and one of the mold with the plug, which is meant to be inserted, the urethane poured, and then the cap is
removed after the urethane cures.



Aside from maybe a need to extend the plug and knurl the top end of it, the models are complete.


Please PM me if you're interested in taking on this job.

No interest?

I'm not asking for free work, if it helps. I'll pay a fair price.

But it's simple work, three pieces needed for one mold set. This is 100 percent lathe work only. No milling of any kind is required.


It may be practical for this to be done on a manual lathe, too, but as I'll probably want a set of four molds, consistency between the four will be important, and as they're molds, high quality surface finishes will be needed so the urethane is easily released from the mold after curing.

I just figure that CNC work would be faster and possibly cheaper than turning these out manually. But that's for you to decide.

It also makes it easier to produce more if my product takes off and I end up with more orders than I expect. Just in case there is enough interest in the product that I can make a go of selling them.

Since I only have Autocad, I can only provide the files in .dxf or .dwg formats. R14 version is available.

I have also modified the files to make this a three piece mold. The outer cylindrical section is now separate from the section
that molds the face of the wheel. This makes the outer cylindrical mold section a simple straight walled tube, as easy to make
as a part can be. This allows easier access to machine the features on the face mold piece, too.


CJ

A measurement for reference would be nice...

Is this for a model car, or a dump truck?

Wheel diameter is 64 millimeters. Length is 61 millimeters.

Mold max diameter will be about 100 mm, roughly, and it'll be about 85mm
tall assembled. There's some leeway in adjusting outer dimensions.

Since every relevant dimension is in millimeters, I did the whole design in metric measurements. The most critical measurements are all dependent on the no. 608 bearings, which are 22mm in diameter and 7mm thick.

I'm on a brief hold while I figure out why Autocad has chosen to dimension the mold parts far differently than I specified them. I use the dimensioning tool and it showed the results as being considerably larger than they should be. I'd end up with a giant wheel, at least for this application, about 50 percent oversized.

I'll let you know when I've readjusted the prints.