Yes absolutely love any small scale manufacturing videos. This is the first time I've seen a desktop injection molding machine and it was very cool.

Wait, you spent $12K on a machine that has a non-working auger and two stepper motors that aren't programmed properly?? Feels like a bit of a rip off...

Hey ! I work in injection molding, it's great to see small integrated solutions like these getting developped. The stepper for the mold being at max torque all the time makes sense for the holding pressure. 5 tons isn't much in injection molding ! The valve one is pretty silly if they use a shutter type valve, yes. There is one simple way to see if grain size is the problem with your auger... Buy a blender and try to grind it and feed it smaller pellets ! EDIT : Also, nylon is extremely hygroscopic. It needs to be pre-dried if the bag has been left open for some time. It causes it to exsudes water when it gets heated and it becomes "sticky"

What a fantastic machine! That should be great for your knife! I designed a few of those knifes in the past and the slider was always incredible time consuming to cut. It just has to many features and needs to be smooth. So your injection moulding idea should be great for that.

THANK YOU for being upfront about costs, really helped me plan ahead for my ideas, 3d printing won't even come close to what I need(small moving parts)!

This was a great video. You guys work well together, and the last 4 minutes were very entertaining. Reading the comments and responding like that really creates a conversation with your audience.

THAT WAS FANTASTIC! So much good experience/information stuffed into a tight package, with little-to-no time wasted. Thanks!

been looking at this machine for a couple of years. hope you keep at it and get it perfected! good luck

I used to do this for a living when I worked for Fullarton, I remember picking out and juggling the hot parts - you could wear gloves but you'd lose dexterity, and you had to quickly carve off small rough edges, watch for shorts and stuff - the moulds would start to break down after prolonged use so you had to examine them. Your hands develop a roughness after a while, i did a lot of different things for that company, from operating steel presses to QA testing IBM and Compaq machines...my time in the plastics factories was probably the most memorable, it was a tough job but it was kinda comfy back then.

Give us all the nerdy details, there's not a lot of coverage on this topic and I'd love to learn more

I'm watching on a one plus 7, and I definitely appreciate the aspect ratio.

With regard to your third problem with the pellets of plastic hanging up in the feeder. My background is in mineral processing, which is almost all involved with moving granular materials around. A rule of thumb for design of systems handling granular materials is that no openings should be smaller than 3 times the size of the largest dimension of the largest particle. So you will continue to have problems unless you can reduce the size of the glass filled nylon pellets or increase the pitch spacing of the flights on the feed auger of the injection molder. Either solution could be difficult to implement unless the nylon resin is available in a smaller pellet size.

I work in injection moulding mainly high end automotive! Found this really interesting as never seen desktop style, I get involved in rubber bump stops to bumpers! But with the injection mould tool look into venting on the mould, cartridge heaters to get some temperature into the mould, bedding the tool out to fix the flash. With the screw look at charging the dimensions and pitch! Hope it goes well though, looks like your learning a lot!

Change the feeder screw to have a small taper on the sides instead of straight square threads. I think that will reduce sticking. Also they are easier to make.

Once you guys get some more experience with injection molding I'm curious how its learning curve compares to learning cnc machining or manual machining and other machining techniques

Very cool and interesting. Injection molding is a topic we haven't seen much on youtube about. Everyone is just like it's hard and expensive. Looks what your doing is quite reasonable. Not every mold needs mirror perfect finishes or needs to last for a million parts.

Could easily be twice as long as still fascinating!

Very intesting. I saw this machine at the PRI show last December, please keep posting about this.

Nice to see the injection molding machine in action!

When molding with PA66 you need to keep the material dry! Put it in about 170C for a few hours to drive the water out before molding or you will have a hard time to keep the filling consistent.

Fantastically useful video. Thanks for showing the faults and solutions.

Thank you for Heavy Metal Unicorn T-shirts feels like we've been waiting for ever.

Love the injection mold info! It’s all black magic to me. 🤘🏼

super following! I have been researching about benchtop injection molding machines for a while. I would love to see more videos on molding with this machine!

Watching on a 49" Ultrawide and I am LOVING the ratio! 😂👍

Open up that feedscrew to let more pellets in. The flight doesn't have to be as thick, so you could just machine down the thickness without having to make a whole new part. Or use smaller pellets. That's the easiest solution to see if it is the pellets simply getting jammed in. It looks like you guys bought 4 mm pellets - try 3 or 2.5 mm for a couple of runs and see if that clears things up. I'm an engineer working in the plastics industry and I design machines that are upstream of the process you guys are involved with now. Really liked the video. Having my own shop to design and ultimately fabricate my ideas is the ultimate dream.

How can anyone release a machine into production with such obvious issues like overheating motors?

I find all this very interesting. I like that your showing all the trial and errors along the way. And that this whole process isnt as simple as it may appear at first glance. Looking forward to seeing future videos. For the issues your having, they all remind me of similar issues I had with my first kit 3d printer. When you mention the first two being related to a firmware issue with the holding torque causing them to over heat. I have a suspicion with the new update (assuming they fixed those issues) may possibly solve your 3rd worm screw issue. Or possibly try a smaller pelt size, toss in a blender maybe to maybe them more random in size if that's of any benefit. Or possibly some sort of a lubricant to prevent binding up. I know some 3d printer users try lubricating their filament so it slides easier in the Bowden tube. Weather that's snake oil or not maybe something true for injection molding with pellets. Just some thoughts and loved the whole process/video can't wait for an update

Well, I liked the injection molding video. I know squat about it and I’m glad to learn watching you learn. But now I’m takin’ a good close look at my knife when it gets here!

Great video... Can't get enough of nitty-gritty details... 👍

This is pretty cool, I've seen similar ideas for desktop injection molding.

I work in injection molding with some significantly larger machines. the flights on your feedthroat screw are too narrow (your theory is correct). Make the flights wider to drive the resin pellets to the feed the feed section of the molding machine. Alternately, a reprocating cyllinder with a plunger can handle wider variety of material & utilize gravity fed, hopper not the screw auger Are you drying your material at all? Your mold and machine has little to no forced cooling cooling, Interim solution -- consider using compressed air rather than a designated thermolator/chiller setup.

Keep the injection molding videos coming!

Love these videos! Also, a variable geometry screw will help with feeding. Consider 3D printing some augers to test geometries under low load/off the machine. Edit: Also, how about that equipment in the back yard?

Been waiting for this one and super interested in this topic and following along.

I'm applying to work at a place that does injection molding in this video will help me look a lot more proficient or at least give me an edge over other applicants without prior experience thank you

I'm a mold designer (mechanical engineer) by profession. @ 14:28, I immediately saw 2 major issues with your mold design. You are gating in the wrong location. Generally, gate at the thickest part of your molded part, not in the thinnest areas as you have. Gating incorrectly results in more short shots (defective parts that did not fully fill out the cavity). Also, you might want to find a way to grind the parting line of your mold, both halves. This will reduce flash.

Love this series, keep them coming.

Wow this is so helpful for understanding the design considerations for a mold. Thankyou

It was good to learn along with you. Vicarious learning is the easiest so thank you for the video.

Awesome video - very interesting topic with very little coverage on YT. Thanks a lot for sharing

I learnt so much watching this thank you.

First time viewer. Came for the injection molding, stayed for the comment response. Probably will do again 😂

You can buy a working low hours 2000s machine that shoots 2-5 oz for that price. If you wanna get into plastic injection, simply buy a table top plunger style machine.

The real question though, does the injection molding machine run linuxCNC?

With a constant sized auger how does the feedramp to the heating cylinder look? How do it build feed pressure and prevent backflow to the hopper?

PA: If your looking at this wondering why you didn’t build one... Me: Erm.... So now you can read my mind 😳

For your third problem, polishing the screw and cooling down the entry channel (much like on industrial IMs) will resolve your issue. Good vid, ty!

Great work. I would like to see more on that mold

Have you considered scrapping the injection molding machines stock controller with a LinuxCNC based controller?

Great video, very interested in seeing more like this.

This was an awesome video! Loved it... please make more

Great video! Too short. Definitely want to see more and more details. Looking forward to see the motor cooling. Regarding your molds: If you polish your mold cavities and put in just a hint of draft parts will probably come out easier. They look kind of rough now.

The Morgan Press is a long established prototype injection molding machine. I had one years ago and used it successfully. They cost something like $30K. I have seen them on ebay for a lot less. It would be easier to home build it has no motors. You can buy a used real injection machine for $10k or less. It will do a lot more. After the Morgan I bought a real machine to replace it. I have two Full size machines now. One is for sale. There are lots of books on molding get some to educate yourself and save time. I have a dozen or more. We have made a dozen or more homemade molds and use them regularly. I have never had mold built outside.

Im working with injection molding machines and I have to say that for 12k you could get a 1000x better used industry machine like a small Arburg. Much better camping force, better homogenization of material and overall more reliable. However you do need more space and power too probably

I have a 33 ton Cincinnati milacron I bought for $900, I like the concept of these desktop units but the cost is outrageous

VERY interested in more videos. Always awesome to learn.

Really nice video! About the mould design, if you use manual inlays which you have to remove from each part by hand, you will be still faster than clamp, machine + post process every single part I assume.

I’m looking forward to more injection molding videos

This guy is so easy to listen to!!!

could you adapt the feeder screw to a smaller pitch to prevent pellets from getting jammed (but you know this) or use a key with a wedge to clear it as it feeds.

The 5 tons closing force determine the maximum area of the injected part at the parting line. The injection pressure tries to force the mold open, so if the area is too large, you get flashing or even spills. The maximum injection pressure is relevant when molding very thin parts or using some plastics. The easier it flows in a molten state, the less pressure is needed. For the machine itself, maybe a toggle link for the movable jaw would have been better, higher closing forces with less motor torque.

I believe your GF Nylon needs to be dry and is very temperamental to moisture.

THIS IS SO COOL!

Water or air cooling your hopper throat would help a lot. Plastic will warm up and stick in the throat so cooling is essential. While you’re at it hook cooling lines to your mold to keep your molds at a constant temperature. To help with flash you can add venting to the mold.

As soon as you mentioned 21:9, I realized, then enjoyed the rest of the video in fullscreen on my Acer X34 😎

good stuff man, keep it up and thanks for the effrots.

This is great. More please :D

You may want to dry that nylon. Nylon absorbs moisture like crazy and can lead to issues with part quality and may make parts brittle. I've never worked with a tabletop machine of this type. Most use hydraulics.

Magic bullet or ninja blender the pellets to reduce their size or, increase the space between the auger flutes. I was reminiscing about the days of having to clean out granulators damn screens. Always had to use something to poke each hole clean. So tedious and time consuming. Spent ten years in injection molding, I miss that stuff! Machines so large, you could live in them.

Awesome video as usual guys. Love your idea about the inside molds using their blank molding support, thats best without always making the holding system everytime. Keep up the good work. It seems to be a nice machine but sadly for you it seems that machine wasn't ready for the market and looks to be still in Beta-Alpha version. I hope you have good support from the manufacturer. It's kinda bad when you know it was about 6.5K$ during kickstarter campaign and might haven't got so much better even with double price. I hope they back their products. It seems a decent low production injection machine but still have flaws like you shown us. Greets from Canada. 👍✌

Very interesting Video, thanks a lot for explaining !

Would it be possible to use a blender to blend the pallets to reduce their size?

Best video yet

My first though with that auger is (and I'm no expert *AT ALL* on these sorts of things) would it help if the cross section of the auger's inclined plane were not rectangular but rather tapered? That would create a pair of divergent walls that the pellets couldn't (or at least would be less likely) to jam up in, wouldn't it? I'm thinking more like a conventional thread and less like an acme thread.

To rectify your auger issue try using a tapered auger. Were the space between the auger walls are slanted and the plastic pellets would not be so easily wedged or jammed.

My laser had overheating Z stepper motor... turns out I just had to flip a dip switch on the control board to run it at a different voltage. Problem went away.

Are you going to incorporate some sort of die cooling to cool the die? I would imagine after 200 parts the thermal conductivity of the aluminium would take up the heat making the cooling time longer.

Don't know how I missed this one only just watched it. My father was a toolmaker specialising in injection moulds and press tools. I learned a few things but they are probably 30+ years out of date. But one trick with ejector pins is to drill and ream for a reasonable sliding fit but leave the last 30 to 50 thou before the mould space a thou or so undersize and then lap the pins in. This means that you are not chasing a close fit allong the entire depth of the ejector pin hole. This was however in steel moulds It might not work in an aluminium mould as the pins may scrape as they sit into the taper formed.

The stepper motor driver should have a mode that shorts the windings to mostly clamp the position while drawing no current. I can't remember if it is the sleep or enable pin. It might not be enough clamping torque to hold back the spring if the ball screw is back drivable. Heatsink and active cooling will be good regardless if you try to get your rate up

Awesome channel! My work just purchased a tormach 1100 and we're thinking about this injection molding machine. With the layout of the aluminum mold, is it possible to make a plastic handle for a screwdriver metal shaft sticking out of it? Possible video idea to show us your version?

Both those guys are so easy to listen to.

What kind of purging compound do you guys use?

A simple 2-part Aluminium mould like this is

We draw polish every mold, it helps to let go of the part when it's ejected and it leaves a nice finish. Another thing for your part, does it have any draft on the side walls? You need a bare minimum of half a degree of draft. Also, your ejector pins are doing their job, but you're still grabbing the part. To combat this, we will either cylce the ejection up to 3 times, or run an air blast, blast of air that turns on and knocks the part off. Your material also needs a specific moisture content, we have material driers for that specific reason... Also venting, normally done with a surface grinder or a really nice mill. It's a small .25 to half inch wide groove on parting line. Depending on your material will depend on the depth the of the vents. With ABS we can get away like .0015 but with nylons and thinner materials, it's normally about .0007 deep. It's the let the air leave the mold when the plastic is entering. You could also do venting by milling in some pockets outside of the cavity, and put some blocks in that pocket that are just a little thicker than the pocket you milled, that will keep the mold apart just to let it vent.

Can you polish the auger and put a slight taper from center to outer diameter so the pellets can move freely?

Was there ever a firmware update to correct the issue with the full voltage on the steppers? I purchased one of these machines for my School and it works well but those steppers get very hot.

whats with the letterbox format? unless im just noticing now

Very Interesting topic and machine. If the Steppers Have drivers there most likely is a dip switch for Half Current. If the Auger were polished it may move down better. Great stuff

To avoid pellets getting stuck, increase the flute length or in other words increase the heating zone length. Also, flutes have to have chamfer at core diameter.

Whats the expense to contract out an injection molded part like that? I always thought injection molded products were fairly cheap (assuming you had the mold).

What advantage does this method have aside from high volume?

This is fucking awesome. More injection molding videos please.

Just popped up in the recommended. Thought you were bill burr when you jumped on screen! Try changing your pellet diameter as a quick test to see if the auger still gets clogged.

I'm very interested. More please :)

What is name of this circle saw that will remove part from stock material at 12:30? I tried to find one many times for my 1-13mm ER-20 tool holder and can’t find any!

Would spherical plastic beads work better than cylindrical? Many years ago I worked in a factory that made shopping carts and I remember the plastic being spherical.

Info on the airlines? Thanks. :)

Very interested!!! Please do more videos. Interested in the auger solution, and over heat stepper solutions.

What about using recycled plastic chips?