I am working alone in a little shop with three of my young homeschooled kids to teach them and bought a simple benchtop injection molder and have made my first couple of molds for really simple parts (they are look like rubber gaskets) and am hooked. These are just simple low-production aluminum molds with two halves and dowel pin locators that you pry apart and they don't have anything complex like springs, ejectors, etc.
Can anyone share where to get really cheap mold bases (even overseas) that I can use so that I don't have to make my own each time? By the time I buy the large pieces of aluminum and paying a big price it really adds up. I figure I can probably get a whole base ready to machine for the price I pay for the aluminum since I don't get the volume discount of a place that makes mold bases.
How about sources for cheap mold components like pin locators and bushings? And sources for lower volume plastic pellets? Seems like all the plastic material places only want to sell you a huge amount (forgot the name they call it but it's huge).
Thanks for your tips and for helping out the small guy
Can anyone share where to get really cheap mold bases (even overseas) that I can use so that I don't have to make my own each time? By the time I buy the large pieces of aluminum and paying a big price it really adds up. I figure I can probably get a whole base ready to machine for the price I pay for the aluminum since I don't get the volume discount of a place that makes mold bases.
How about sources for cheap mold components like pin locators and bushings? And sources for lower volume plastic pellets? Seems like all the plastic material places only want to sell you a huge amount (forgot the name they call it but it's huge).
Thanks for your tips and for helping out the small guy