I don’t know much about machining. I’d love to pick someone’s brain and learn more. I’ll have to get on a machining board.
How much would you charge to make that rotor blade mold for someone else?
There’s something I’m thinking about having a nice mold made for.
I’m not switching over to metal molds really, just making one mold. The rest of my molds are frp.
The cost of mold making in a machine shop is around $75 per hour + materials costs + a set up fee that usually covers the cost of writing the CNC program. To do a one-off mold would be costly to pay to have it made. I imagine for that rotor blade mold the price would start somewhere around $350.
The best way to learn machining is to start by taking a community college class. After that learn by doing. It’s good to read up on the subject also, so you can understand the measuring tools used, rpm and feed speeds, the different machines out there and such.
for small parts metal molds work very well, and for you fastrr since you have the connect I would really take advantage of that. if you dont know already then you should get familiar with cad, you could really put out some nice parts
i will hardcoat anodize (with teflon)and that will increase the durability will taking a little of the shine off the surface.
i agree, from a proccessing standpoint prepreg looks like a good way. only thing that is turning me away from it is the initial cost (for a roll of 4x4 twill) and storage. if i use some form of wet layup or rtm the initial investment will be small. i guess if the decisions were easy everyone would do it. right?
snocutt,
try this http://cnczone.com/forums/index.php
the rotor blade molds are contoured in such a way that “3D” machining is required. this means a “ball end mill” needs to make alot of passes to achieve the end result. it will probably take the machine 30 min + just to cut one side and the programing is somewhat involved. if your part doesnt have contours that require the “ball” the 350.00, as Fastrr said is correct. if i was making these molds for a customer they would be twice that
for storage all you will need is a chest freezer. and as for the cost of the prepreg, material cost per part will be so low, and you will be able to use every last piece of carbon especially for such a small part you are making. you should consider using uni-direction prepreg carbon fiber. you will achieve highest strength to weight ratio this way
HOJO, what business did you witness the compression molding at in NH?
Durham boat company