is it better to have the molds made out of aluminum , with a CNC ? (i know the finish wont be as smooth as a Tooling gel / fiberglass mold , but i bet it will be more durable)
does anyone have experience with this type of molds?
P.S :
im new here 
hello all and thanks for this wonderful forum !
Iāve use CNC milled aluminum tools. They work great and will polish up very, very, nice.
Is it a two piece mold for hollow structures or an open mold?
its gonna be an open mold for carbon infusion
We have done composite, aluminum, and steel. It will also come down to how many parts are you want to mold and the cost. Here is an aluminum mold we did for our iPad case (using a prepreg).
The better the milling (should be listed in the requirement specs), the better the finish. Also, if you plan on polishing, the better the finish, the easier to sand/polish without any milling marks!
Aluminum is great. Just be careful when demolding, cutting fabric, storage, etcā¦it will scratch easily.
BTW, this is how an aluminum mold can look with a little work. The finer the stepover the faster the sanding the process will go. The polishing, once the cut marks are flattened, is the same regardless of the stepover. If you are paying someone to do you milling then a smaller stepover will cost you more since the time on the machine will be greater. If you have your own mill then time is on the factor.
Thatās some mould! Great guys!! Maybe some picture of the product?
Did you do the polishing by hand and which paste should be the best for Aluminium?
wow thats a nice polish job, my hats off to ya! i dont want to know how long that took!
First off, thatās not a picture of one of my molds. I just quickly grabbed one from another forum that I participate in.
I always do the sanding by hand and the polishing with a random orbit palm polisher and compounds designed for aluminum.
The biggest danger is rounding the edges of multi-piece molds that need to make nice seams. The trick is to mill a small proud ridge on the flange right next to the mold cavity. This allows you to fully polish the cavity and then later block the ridge off on the flange. This leaves a very sharp edge that will make for beautiful seams like in the in-mold-painted parts below.
Nice picā¦
I totally agree with Adam , small proud rail around parting plane is the only way to go.
Produces a perfect join line.
Tim
Can you explain what you mean by āproudā?
Thanks
32mm OD CNC mould for Pre-Preg Carbon Tube
Paddle Blades
Rudder Mould
CNC Aluminium moulds heated by 240AC Elements, 10yrs. old still going strong.
John Hayes
www.bladerunneroutriggers.com
Pround - raised above the surrounding area.
Here is a pic of my new CNC moldsā¦ Done in tooling board. You can see a raised rib around the LE ā¦leading edge , top half of the plane. It is 2mm x 1mm and goes from tip to tip.
Painted with a thin coat of 2k paintā¦ Then sanded down flat to the parting planeā¦ Gives a perfect join.
[ame=āhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhCU3iV9U3s&feature=youtube_gdata_playerā]GIZMO 36 molds - YouTube[/ame]
And the result , perfect male plugsā¦
[ame=āhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRDMCgBr5Gg&feature=youtube_gdata_playerā]Gizmo 36 new plugs - YouTube[/ame]
Beautiful pedal blade!! Is it in one piece or bonded?
Thank you but I believe itās good only if you make a one part mold?
Or if its a 2 parts mold A&B(top & bottom) then this raised (proud) have to get inside of the other part of the mold . Please correct me if Iām wrong
I forgot :
And if the āproudā have to get into the other part of the mold I donāt see why you need it??
Or maybe I donāt understand the profit of it
Let me know. Thank you
When you go to polish an aluminum multi-piece mold set that makes seams, the corner (between the flange and the mold face) is very prone to getting rounded in the process. This makes a seam that looks wide and obtuse. To remedy this situation the mold gets milled with a āproudā ridge on the corner. This āproudā ridge protects what will become the true seaming corner. Once the mold cavity is fully polished, the proud ridge gets block sanded/removed leaving it flush with mold flange. This makes a very sharp corner for making great looking seams. Milled molds that I made this way make seams with a flashing less than .002" (often .001") thick for over 100 parts. You can often clean it up the flashing with your finger nail. See drawings below:
So this "proud rib"will be removed after polishing the mold.
Make sense
I never know about this way and I thank you for this
I made myself few aluminum Cnc molds for plastic injection in the past
This is a smart way to have a perfect flush at the party line
Always learning Thank you
this method is also used in composites molds?