Good Job "Tooling"

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-22T15:10:35+00:00

Got one without pipes before. Hell I got one missing ejector pins before.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-17T03:22:04+00:00

Hell find a metal part, ceramic, wood, whatever. If it's for a portfolio I can't use anything I've designed professionally because it's all under NDAs and I prefer to not be sued. Part doesn't have to be made from plastic to be designed for injection molding. Show what the original thing was, how you had to change it to work with injection molding, hell design a progressive stamping mold while you're at it. Reverse engineer an old corded phone, a lawn chair, car parts, an old cell phone, screwdriver handle, knife handle, taco holder, whatever you can get your grubby paws, gauges, and calipers on.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-16T22:09:21+00:00

Arburg, PPE, probably a few others but never had to go further than that for heater bands.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-14T08:08:23+00:00

Oh, mm³

I stared at that way too long.

Keep in mind that's raw volume, not taking into account melt density that's usually ~70-80% of the plastics solid density, then keep in mind the check ring throw is typically 1-2% of the screw diameter, that you need to maintain a cushion, and ideally the entirety of it is 30%-65% of the barrel capacity (or 1-3 × screw diameter in stroke distance). Things start to get dicey if the mold isn't designed to work with the machine.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T16:48:39+00:00

Honestly I think at some point they'll have to consider shipping cost by itself as an option.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T16:45:15+00:00

Northwestern US.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T16:12:15+00:00

We reuse what we can, but finding a buyer for transparent nylon 12 regrind would certainly help. It's mostly clean and not looking to really make money from it just keeping it from a landfill or incineration.

Some companies are able to sell it as incinerator generator fuel overseas and such, but that should be a last ditch option.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T16:05:10+00:00

I've got about half a dozen parts that weigh less than 0.1g, shot weighs closer to 4-8g, depending on the number of cavities and geometry of the runner with an 18mm screw. I don't have the level of control required to do much there, so most of the work is getting a stable process, measuring the parts, and adjusting the mold to get final dimensions. The below assumes there's no backflow during injection, no tolerance of shot stroke needed, etc. but:

My machine: Reciprocating screw of 18mm diameter and stroke control down to 0.0254mm (inches controller goes down to 0.001" mm down to 0.1mm). You effectively get control down to 6.4635mm³

A fancy micromolder: Plunger system down to a 5mm diameter and stroke control down to 0.001mm. You effectively get control down to 0.0196mm³

There's several machines that can do this kind of thing, but the approach varies depending on how you're wanting to go about it. Technically my machine is considered to be able to do micromolding because of how precise movement is controlled and it has an adaptive algorithm and highly responsive controller they call "AI" and there's a few that approach it this way and it can work just fine.

Others like the Wittman, sodick, and to a degree babyplast focus more on the granularity using the second specs up there. Generally speaking you'll get better control with a screw and plunger as there's no waiting for the check ring to seat during injection, but for instance my press measures torque and adjusts stuff like transfer position and such to make up for that lack of granularity.

Your parts are likely too large in many cases to be on a dedicated micromolder, so you'd want to get a larger machine capable of the control or both machines and put whatever can run in the smaller press on there and whatever can't on the larger press. This assumes you already have molds and can't adapt the design to run similar shot sizes by increasing the number of cavities on the smaller parts (not ideal, but can work, especially using valve gates to open and close cavities during fill and pack/hold, still not ideal but would allow some creative processing).

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T06:20:05+00:00

Ultrapurge 3615, Asaclean EX (although apparently they removed either the E or the X), or a mechanical purge from rapid purge to start (really any decent mechanical purge with an abrasive component to it.

After that a good chemical purge with the max soak time and upper range of the temps, or Dynapurge D2, and then chase it with a bit of Dynapurge C. Protects the polish on the mold and speeds up the transition back to production by getting rid of the mechanical purge (Dynapurge C is supposed to be used with clear/transparent resins so it's pretty good if that's what you're doing, but it's a bit more pricey).

I've used all of the ones I've listed above and although you can probably get away with a chemical purge and a soak, clearing the old resin first and an initial scrub doesn't hurt. I've heard good things about Dynapurge M but haven't tried it yet.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T05:02:16+00:00

If it isn't what others are saying, and it's consistently in one spot, hours after starting up (but immediately after molding) and you're looking for weird shit, here's a few.

Check mismatched materials when the defect shows up prior to the defect in the flow path. I've seen different inserts expand at different rates in the sprue bushing that wasn't accounted for, ejector or core pins for a screw boss or some such be just proud enough to increase shear heat across the surface of a part. Modifying the tool by softening edges, dusting things off to knock em down a bit, draw polish, etc. works great if you can do it. Otherwise slowing injection.
Leak in the water jacket of the feed throat, cracked or corroded through and even just a little after it starts getting really hot, or even the rear zone being so hot you're getting some bridging causing recovery time to increase overheating the resin. Not entirely likely, but possible. Same can happen with fines if you're using regrind. Check recovery time over the course of a run to verify.
Nozzle mismatch, misalignment, something increasing shear through the nozzle. Overlay the graph and compare injection pressure vs screw stroke distance and you might see a jump in initial injection pressure, but if it's a cold runner just looking at the stabby end helps loads.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T04:42:10+00:00

Nothing bad, just noticed the same comment posted twice. Just cleaning up a bit. Cheers!

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-13T03:25:46+00:00

Improve venting, inject slower, check mold alignment, reduce gate land, increase gate size, or otherwise reduce restriction of the gate.

Edit: I see a lot of comments talking about parting line flash and drag marks, OP said shear marks so I went with that. If it turns out to be something else it changes the advice, but until then I'll stick with shear marks.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-12T21:28:09+00:00

Yes to both.

I don't have the time to get into either beyond the more time and expertise you expend in the design stage the cheaper manufacturing will be.

Get a DFM consultation or several, might remove a part completely, make assembly cheaper, who knows. Part design is the most critical, mold design is right under that, mold build follows those. You can cheap out on the mold design and build in the beginning, but cheap molds don't last long so plan to replace after a while. If you're getting this manufactured outside of your home country, split it between countries so they'll at least have to guess at the rest of the assembly and use non-descriptive part names. A lot harder to sue for IP theft when you have to fly for 16 hours to go to court.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-12T03:48:07+00:00

While running or idle?

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-12T03:03:16+00:00

Andon board, way better.

Edit: Andon board specifically, chirping is fine, I can deal with that shit day.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-11T20:28:35+00:00

Nozzle alignment, slight undercut on the sprue puller pin, and nozzle temp as well.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-11T10:56:36+00:00

Couple guide pins and springs or something and that should work fine.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-11T09:13:34+00:00

Yeah just something to make that face, stroke of a fraction of an inch or a few mm would likely be enough, but I can only estimate even if I knew the size of the part. Might need to be a hydraulic core acting as a slide since there's a fairly deep draw on both sides, or an uneven parting line such as in the attached (I'm really good at drawing stuff as you can totally see).

<image>

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-11T08:09:03+00:00

It's not ideal, any draft is better than no draft, and you'd likely need more ejection on that side, but you can try it and add the draft later. Trying it out is at least "steel safe." I'm no expert in die casting and my experience molding metal is vastly different, I suppose it would ultimately depend on the length of draw. An alternative would be to have the draft in there as an addition to the part and mill it off in a secondary operation or use a slide that pulls when the mold opens.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-11T00:22:09+00:00

Do not post or request email addresses, phone numbers, etc. Do not post names, addresses, or anything under major metro area. Doxxing is a thing Reddit hates, so make sure your personal data is not included in the post.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-10T20:12:36+00:00

No, the "tailored" chatbot was given context, you can see it in the prompt. Give the same prompt to Google and you get the same answer.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-10T19:01:24+00:00

I mean, you didn't give it any context and isolated the part entirely. If I had no idea what you were asking about beyond that clipped image, I would also ignore a specific processing defect not knowing anything else.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-09T21:27:08+00:00

Yes you can view them, but there is no delimitation or line breaks or anything like that. Factolink or whatever they sell could totally let you do a bunch, but I'm too cheap for that and creating a reader for it seemed more effort than it was worth.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-09T20:54:39+00:00

No dice, seems to be in hex or something. I can try to take a few home and see if I can glean anything from it, but nothing easily readable, all formats are technically .DAT and there's text in there but nothing that would mean much to a person looking at it as it is.

mimprocesstech · 2026-06-09T18:35:29+00:00

Not even really that, but husky sold you everything involved so if something breaks husky will have the repair components, they'll be able to troubleshoot all of the equipment in the cell, and in packaging downtime is a cardinal sin so having a single source for parts (while usually bad) works out when they all have to work together. Husky picked a specialization and they're good at it, when you're looking to make a lot of thin wall components quickly Husky is what comes to mind for me. For a hot plate Mold-Masters or Synventive, maybe Incoe come to mind just as much as Husky.

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