[sdiy] Plastic case fabrication

[Rob]

try these places...
http://www.edwardsind.com/models.htm
http://www.prototype3d.com/tech.html
http://www.designinsite.dk/htmsider/p0051.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Clark" <clark at andrews.edu>
To: "Jon Darby" <jdarby at lplizard.com>
Cc: <synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [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?=20
>
>    My company did a plastic housing a couple of years ago and I believe
> that the cost came out to $30K.  However, it's not as simple of a part as
> what you are suggesting, so you might come out cheaper.  However, the
> typical procedure looks something like this:
>
>    Tooling Engineer designs mold
>    Tooling company burns the mold into metal block
>    Surface finisher smooths out mold
>    Injector company runs small test batch
>    Tooling engineer checks out samples
>    Tooling company makes rough adjustments (if necessary)
>    Surface finisher fixes problem areas (if necessar)
>    Go into production
>
>    And let me tell you, those surface finishers are _expensive_!
>    But what everyone else has said is basically true, $30K first part,
> pennies for the production runs.  Plastic is _so_ cheap after the
> initial cost!
>
>    Tony
>
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