[sdiy] Plastic case fabrication

[Rob]

DIYers in Wisconsin areaI have two words for you: Stereo Lithography.

Uses a laser to set a thin layer of polymer, and many thin layers comprise the entire unit. Very quick, and not all that expensive if you are only going to make one or two units.

No tooling required.

Rob


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Halliday 
  To: 'Jon Darby' ; synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl 
  Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 1:48 PM
  Subject: RE: [sdiy] Plastic case fabrication


  I looked into this once.  The problem is that these are made by injecting plastic into a metal mold under fairly high pressure and temperature ( couple hundred degrees and PSI )

  The mold has to be strong enough to resist this.  It also has to be made so that it can fit into the molding machine.  To get this, you need to spend several thousand dollars on up depending on the complexity of your design.   Classic case of the first one costing $10,000 and each successive one costing $0.30 each.

  You might want to search the web for various plastic companies - see if there might be an off-the-shelf extrusion or blow molded piece that can be used.  Or change what you are designing to fit something off the shelf.


    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl [mailto:owner-synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl]On Behalf Of Jon Darby
    Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 10:25 AM
    To: synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl
    Subject: [sdiy] Plastic case fabrication


    Good afternoon, everyone (please adjust greeting to your time zone),
       How would one go about commisioning someone to fabricate a number of plastic bowl-shaped cases, or really any shape someone would want? For example, the case a cell phone sits in, someone designed that and another guy is making them as we speak. Who are these people and how do I contact them for a simple, simple half-sphere much simpler than even the simplest of cell phone cases, and the only thing I would ask would be flanges to drill screws into. I'm trying to avoid cutting hundreds of little plastic balls you find at the Chuck E. Cheese Ball Crawl in half and epoxying the guts into the bottom. Is this type of work tremendously expensive to have done? 
    Thank you for the advice,
    Jon Darby
       
      
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