Aluminum Mold making

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#1

I would like to make a mold for parts that will make at least 100 parts or more without the mold being comprimised/breaking.

I hear metal works well for this? I work in a machine shop with CNC milling machines so I have access to all their machines and cutters.

First or second… I would like to ask if there is a pourable liquid that can be made into a mold… like plastic or ridgid rubber?

Also how do i get the pattern for my mold transfered into the aluminum? Do I need a CMM machine to be able to do this? There are many countours involved in the finished part. I plan on selling these parts.

#2

well you can make an epoxy mold that can do quite a few runs. How big is the project??

I have several normal poly molds that have pulled more then a hundred parts. depending on size you can just make several normal molds that will work.

#3

DualTwill this is for the seat cowl that has the flexing issue, but i plan with your help and ohers to fix that issue. The part is about 2 inches deep x 10 inches wide x 13 inches length.

#4

The cost for that mold is going to be enormous and if youre going to do that youll find it was a losing battle.

Just make a mold out of regular materials and see what your market is. The 900RR is kind of dated and while it has a massive following…unfortunately its mostly stunters who trash their bikes.

Even on new models I have to be carefull of parts I want to make. Funnily enough, Honda parts are my slowest mover.

#5

Firstly make sure the product you are making works 101%, then when it does make a few using an inexpensive poly mould, and if it looks as though you are going to sell hundreds simply make more cheap poly moulds, so you can lay up several at the same time.

#6

Poly mould? Like Polyester resin with no cloth or mat?

Hybridracers… the aluminum mold wouldn’t cost me more than the price of a block of aluminum… around $60.

While my bike is a 900rr, i don’t plan on making cowls/fairings for the 900rr. It would be for other models :slight_smile: Most people who own the 900rr don’t have money to throw into it.

Where is the best/cheapest online store to buy Kevlar twill and C/F twill? I’m still wanting to try and make a couple parts out of silver e-glass. I love the way that stuff looks under epoxy. Also when working with epoxy is a carbon filter respirator good enough breathing protection?

#7

who makes aluminum molds for 60$ ?

#8

I guess you are able to write the program for the CNC machines to enable them to make your moulds, and you are not worried about the fact that its going take quite some time to do the actual machining?

Would have thought before going to all this trouble it might be a very good idea to make sure your product is fully sorted, and then closely investigate the numbers you might be going to sell.

I would fully agree with Hybrid though, in that wouldnt expect to sell more than a few units…bearing in mind that people dont generally spend a great deal of money on dated sports bikes.

#9

I worked at a machine shop, and we billed in the neighborhood of $150-200/hr

We had 15 CNC lathes, 2 CNC mills, and 1 NC mill, along with a bunch of manual machines.

Even a simple mold is going to be no less than 2 hours with program writing, machine setup, runtime, finishing time.

Good luck getting it done for $60.

#10

nvm, I just read your other post, you ARE a machinist, so yeah, $60 + your time is totaly doable.

#11

make sure to post pics of the finished aluminum mold.

#12

Id like to see it as well.

Im just trying to save you a hell of a lot of trouble.

Youre going to find that with the current 2 year revamp on sportbikes, it doesnt leave you much time to get after it.

Drawing in CAD and then running the CAM commands is going to take you several hours. Ive never been able to run thru the thousands of lines of code to see if there was an error. Hell even running the program on a dummy blank is time consuming.

You have to make tooling to hold the block and all the other things youve got to put into it.

Sure its a great idea…but I wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole unless I KNEW that I was gonna sell…400 of them for full pop.

I dont buy into the 2 hours of time and 60 block of “cheap” billet.

#13

2 hours? nah more like 12 hours. then a couple hours to polish the mold. I wouldn’t make an aluminum mold for my years of bike… more like bikes that are only a few years old.
Securing the block to the machine table is the easy part. Writting the program is the hard part. My friend at work does all our programs for us on site. If i buy him a lunch or two he’d do it.

It is much effort for a single mold, but i think if i make a late model bike part it would more than pay for itself.

For now i am going to try and make a fiberglass/resin mold for my bikes cowl… i want it perfect even if it takes a couple attempts at mold making. I think you guys are absolutely right in that the cowl needs to be much thicker in cloth layers. I’ll try 8 layers of cloth and a lighter weight spring on that hinge.

What about vacuum bagging, will that keep the lay up tight against the mold?

I’m here to learn :slight_smile:

#14

IF i make an aluminum mold, i’ll do better than post pics of the finished mold… i’ll post pics from start to finish. To do this i’ll have to get my bosses ok and get my friends ok to write the program. My boss can be pursuaded lol.

#15

If you have the CNC machine, you would need to draw it in whatever program suits it. Solidworks is a very common one.
If you have the money, then you can get a reverse engineered mold drawing from a Faro arm, or laser scanner. We ALMOST got one here…tis sad, since I now know how to use soildworks!

I like aluminum molds…you don’t have to keep repairing gelcoat bubbles for a week.

#16

If you vacuum bag it youll be fine.

I draw all my CAD with LAN DESKTOP…its a good little program and is pretty easy to vector to the CAM program.

#17

I wonder if the OP has had any experience retailing bike parts? Is he going to be able to keep the unit cost low enough to offer products to dealers at reasonable prices, and most importantly how long has he been working with composites?

Before considering costly and long winded ways of making moulds, it might be a good idea for him to have a careful look at the 2 previous points?

#18

OP?

I run a small parts business for three years now. I won’t do wholesale orders… just sell through word of mouth and advertising online. :slight_smile: For now I don’t want to hire labor so keeping it small is the ticket and not wholesaling.

#19

you should make a male and female mold if your going to machine your mold, you can make very nice parts pressing and it is quicker.

#20

If you dont plan to have volume sales, and want to keep the operation small scale, then it doesnt honestly seem cost effective to make aluminuim moulds, and a wider range of products made using cheap poly moulds, might make more money?