reidy-
03-05-2015, 08:04 PM
Hi all,
So me and a friend have come across a potential business opportunity moulding and casting in polyurethane, Currently we are only looking to form so 1/4" bars in approximatly 600mm in length. Neither of us are machinists (hence me being here asking for help) at the moment we are looking at producing these moulds in silicone, this has a finite life span and also costs about £100 / 5Kg so being able to make a mould that will last a life time would be way more cost effective.
We will eventually look at buying our own CNC milling machine but only if this project turns out to be a success (the profit will pay for a CNC machine :D)
My idea was milling the two cast faces into some plate mild steel or aluminium (this is where you come in ;) )
I'd like some advice as to where to go to get this done (companies), (or perhaps you could do this.. for a fee though I am lookin to keep this cheap!)
The design is simple a 650mm(l)*70mm(w)*16m(d) of plate metal, and machine out several channels at 600(l)*6.35(w)*3.175(d) along the length equally disperesed and do exactly the same on the mirror plate
4 locating holes which I will camlp the two sides together using a few bolts, washers and nuts
Please see example here http://s13.postimg.org/tu2bhkok7/Untitled.jpg (this is our silicone mould CAD drawing the metal example would have 4/5 channels and be 600mm in length and not have the locating pins)
I'll try update with a proper cad drawing of what we want, but if we could get some pointers of some cheap fabricators or advice on how to create this that wont cost an arm and a leg for a poor PhD student haha
Thanks again
So me and a friend have come across a potential business opportunity moulding and casting in polyurethane, Currently we are only looking to form so 1/4" bars in approximatly 600mm in length. Neither of us are machinists (hence me being here asking for help) at the moment we are looking at producing these moulds in silicone, this has a finite life span and also costs about £100 / 5Kg so being able to make a mould that will last a life time would be way more cost effective.
We will eventually look at buying our own CNC milling machine but only if this project turns out to be a success (the profit will pay for a CNC machine :D)
My idea was milling the two cast faces into some plate mild steel or aluminium (this is where you come in ;) )
I'd like some advice as to where to go to get this done (companies), (or perhaps you could do this.. for a fee though I am lookin to keep this cheap!)
The design is simple a 650mm(l)*70mm(w)*16m(d) of plate metal, and machine out several channels at 600(l)*6.35(w)*3.175(d) along the length equally disperesed and do exactly the same on the mirror plate
4 locating holes which I will camlp the two sides together using a few bolts, washers and nuts
Please see example here http://s13.postimg.org/tu2bhkok7/Untitled.jpg (this is our silicone mould CAD drawing the metal example would have 4/5 channels and be 600mm in length and not have the locating pins)
I'll try update with a proper cad drawing of what we want, but if we could get some pointers of some cheap fabricators or advice on how to create this that wont cost an arm and a leg for a poor PhD student haha
Thanks again