altering a die vs a mold cost

I was watching about the metal x printer and heard about cost for a pound of powder and time to print, cool but wow! like anything im sure it'll get faster and cheaper. but for the time being, it got me thinking what's the benefits as compared to milling, casting or forging parts after setup. It seems to me, making changes would be very cheap comparatively. so I'm still caught on the last two options. I've only read, no experience, that dies are stupid expensive but I haven't any idea on how expensive it is to make a change to a mold. yes im aware it's just sand but there's usually that hidden area that someone that's not in the field wouldn't be aware of. so im just wondering what are somethings to consider during "retooling", of a production setup, that drive cost for a small alteration in molds? im thinking its straightforward but im not sure that's why im asking
and how about what getting new dies for stamping and forging?
any examples I would really love to hear.
Thanks for sharing!!

Your question is kinda like asking how much for a wedding cake. Much more info is needed as generally stuff that can be stamped is not molded and stuff that is molded cannot be stamped. Add in the rest of the minutia in either and it can be super simple or super complex for a simple innocent looking change.

In general, there is no general rule for the costs of either.

Depends too on whether the die/mold was initially designed and built with the possibility of changes/revisions in mind.

Right now I see metal/plastic printing as prototyping. You refer to molds as in sand castings where I see die castings and plastic molds, and stampings as progressive dies.

Yes, the permanent tooling is expensive to change, that's why a lot of preliminary design work is done before release for tooling. Once permanent tooling is up and running there no way currently for printing to keep up with these means of production.

What I believe you are referring to is a sand or permanent die casting, or a forging as feedstock to machining. Prototype sand castings can be made with really cheap tooling. Often they are wood, but could be plastic foam. Even metal patterns can be easily and cheaply make by NC machines. In some cases it would cheaper to just make a new pattern as apposed to revising a current one. Assuming that the printed part can satisfy the design requirements, you can get some amazing parts by printing that require basically no further processing.

Tom

WILLEO6709 said:

Your question is kinda like asking how much for a wedding cake. Much more info is needed as
generally stuff that can be stamped is not molded and stuff that is molded cannot be stamped. Add in the rest of the minutia in either and it can be super simple or super complex for a simple innocent looking change.

In general, there is no general rule for the costs of either.

Click to expand...

not looking for a general rule just things to think of. so yes just like a wedding cake what out there?

glenbjackson said:

not looking for a general rule just things to think of. so yes just like a wedding cake what out there?

Click to expand...

Chances are, most any mold or die revisions will cost less than wedding cake.

Certain designs lend themselves to 3D printing in metal better than others. Imagine a part that has internal channels for liquid or gas transfer, mounting flanges that double as flexible shock adsorbers, thin walls and not one straight-line feature anywhere. Yes, you will have to perform finish machining operations on mating features because of shrinkage allowances during the printing process, but trying to make all that stuff with 20 century methods will be extremely expensive, in both time and cash outlay.