I've been watching a lot of your back catalog. I'm trying to decide whether I want to get into injection molding or if I will farm out the work. Your videos do a great job of breaking down the process and making it seem rather manageable. Thank you for sharing your insights and experience.

You could probably double the cycle time on the screw reenforced mold. 1- Better/shorter driver. The Milwaukee M12 Instillation driver is excellent. Compact, powerful, precise, inexpensive. I started using them in my machine for clamps and fixtures and it is a game changer. 2- Make the screws 2"+ long, with holes in the spacer plate to accommodate the extra length. Unscrew the fasteners enough to get the part out without completely undoing them, and you reduce the handling count by 8. Massive time savings. 3- Mold jig for the operator. Eliminate the hand-torquing effect with a jig to hold the mold for opening/closing. Faster + Safer. 4- Threaded inserts (KeenSert, Helicoil, etc) to solve the threads in aluminum issue. Great videos BTW! You're making me think we should get into injection molding our own parts!

Thanks John, great content once again. Looking forward to seeing your ejector pin video on the travin, as I have this machine and something I want to do.

Great job and very informative and realistic

Thank you for a clear video.

Always enjoy your videos.

Thank you for share you experience with the world ! Interesting rule of thumb for the clamping for molding part. The screw could be made to be remove by sliding of the edge of the mold. Maybe it would make you cycle time a bit faster. But it would need a nut and maybe a ticker plate. Great vid keep at it !

Thanks John, I've just switched from a manual Travin TP1 to a hydraulic version the same as yours, I'm having trouble as I thought I would as I noticed the hydraulic version moves quite slowly and acts like a ram splitting open my moulds, I seem to have got away with it on my manual machine by pumping in plastic quite quickly this works pretty OK. I thought I would have to resort to bolting them together and you've beaten me to it!

Thanks for the video, very informative💪

If you'll take a center punch and angle it into the hole for the dowel pin (without the pin in) you can put in a couple of punch marks, and that will be enough to lightly press the pin into place so it stays put. You can also do it around the edge of the hole if that's easier, but anything that will just slightly deform the hole inwards will take care of it! I had some molds where I got my clearances off and it allowed me to go ahead and use them. When I make molds, I still make through holes for the pins, but I make most of the hole a slip fit for the dowel and a light press fit for only the last 1.5-2.5mm. Then I can easily press the pin in after slipping in most of the way, and the pin stays. But if I need to remove it, a couple of strikes with a punch or drift and take it back out since it only had a couple of mm of press fit. We're still working on our plastic injector. We have electronics working, and have made parts but now are going through a round of redesign. I'll update you when I have an update!

Very informative! Looking forward to the ejector pin video.

Super John

nice video! Are these more parts for the train model oil tank building from last week? A static vent pin in the middle of the part may help with getting the air pocket out and lower you pressure. if cosmetics allow

Have you considered using an over/under reamer set for dowel pins? The undersized reamer is a few tenths below, so the pin has to be pressed in and it will stay there while the oversized reamer is a few tenths over and provides good positioning.

Great channel! 🙂 Have you tried that mold without the screws? Looking at the clamping system and that steel machine body it looks more like 10 ton equipment than 4 ton. Even a decent bench vise is good for 4 ton.

Hi John, if you ever decide to make a injection moulding machine for yourself so you could run fully auto on bigger moulds I love to share some of my ideas. Been in the industry for nearly 30 years as a process technician on machines upto 3250 tons. Great channel. Jim🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

thank you

What about using a horizontal mounted 10 or 20 ton air over hydraulic jack for clamping? Would you be able to utilize the extra clamping in making a larger part? There are others using steppers and ball screws to clamp their molds who are making significantly larger parts.

Cool video

I had a question. You mentioned that the clamping force required is proportional to cross sectional area but it seems that most of the parts you make a quite thin. If the part you are making in this video were say 1in think with the same cross sectional area would you still be able to make it and the clamping pressure would still be sufficient? I am considering getting one but the thickness of the part I want to make is about 1/2in thick with maybe about a 1in squared cross sectional area.

Thunk you 🙏

Thanks for another injection video. Have you thought about using loctite or super glue on the dowel pins? I would press fit them from now on but to fix your older ones that may work.

Thank you very much for making this video and showing a good general understanding of the way these desktop machines work. Would that travin be able to produce a part like a flat panel that's about 13 in x 8 in and maybe like four or five millimeters thick?

Great video. 😀Could you make two injected molded parts at the same time? What’s the biggest size part you could make with this machine?

John, do you have to cool the die halves periodically or are the cycle times low enough that the heat doesn't build up?

Have you through about making two parts at a time with the screwed mold?

great video, could you use a large c clamp around the outside of the machine to boost the machines clamp?

Hey John thanks for the injection molding content. I am using a manual plunger style desktop molder. I’m having issues with the nozzle drooling plastic out while I’m removing parts from my mold. It makes a huge mess and lots of strings when I scrape the glob off the vise each cycle. I’ve tried decreasing barrel temp but then my molds don’t fill. How do you handle this? Your process looks so clean (and with less plastic waste!). Thanks and love your videos!

just a thought why don't you change the pivot point of the clamp to help you produce more force?

A little tip for holding the packing pieces together is to use double sided tape. I used to swear by the Tesa brand (not cheap!) It's really good at not leaving sticky residue. Used to hold plastic plate onto a milling machine bed for machining! Don't use too much tape! Not sure if you're clamping force would be too much for it? Edit.. wish I knew the Tesa product code.. sorry

Thank you, i learn about the pressure of sq inch of injection mold, is that possible to have two or more injection input in same time for large scale mold?

Hi John iv got a quick question for you on your very small parts have you tried to laser instead of milling?

Johh, how does the Travin know when to stop injecting, or match the amount of plastic dispensed to the volumetric space of the cavity in the mold? Why do we not see plastic coming through the air vent ? Is seeing plastic oozing out a good way to know the mold is full ?

What’s the maximum size part you can make on that machine?

I'm a bit surprised you didn't ream the dowel pin holes, with one side being an interference fit and the other side being a slip fit, pressing the pins into the interference fit side for permanent retention.

Hi John- first, thanks for the videos. These are very educational for me and I'm learning a lot. But here's a question, and I apologize if you may not like it, but... What is your take on the Precious Plastic injection machines? We have one here in Savannah, and we like it because it allows us to recycle pretty fair amounts of plastic that would otherwise be landfilled. But we want to up our game. Ours is a manually operated machine that injects a comparatively large volume of plastic. It uses bolt-together molds that are (again, comparatively) fairly crude- simple laser-cut affairs. We make simple coasters and small plant pots, and small sea creature keychains. So my question is this- what improvements would you suggest for these machines? I have a few ideas that I'm mulling over, but I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts. Thanks BG

thanks for the info, I would have built a machine that is far to small for what I want to mold...time to rethink

Great video 👍John Tool maker's use a half thread trick to speed up jig time assembly disassembly machined at angle half the thread's are used.

I may have missed something in earlier videos, but what happened to the Morgan press? I would have imagined you would have used that machine for your larger parts.

Hi John, Could you please help me identify one very, very old injection moulding machine which I purchased on Ebay near London. The tags exhibit the previous company name and a patent number. Unfortunately, the patent relates only to the way the mould is pushed out from a mould by operating the vice, and not the machine itself. I am interested in an operating manual or blueprints, since some hydraulic parts are missing and the heater energy regulator is not really working as it should. It is always in the ON position, regardless how I turn the knob. Finding a replacement for this is a task by itself, unrelated. So, is there any way you could help me, considering your experience? Any advice is welcome.

Hi there I like your videos I am trying to get into plastic injection to make checker stone or backgammon checkers , I am making them right now in a cnc machine but it takes a long time ! I wish you can help me where or who can make a mold for me I will appreciate

Is it possible to have molded-in parts included, such as power connectors, when do the 3d printed mold approach?

what if we install 20 ton hydraulic or more at this home injection machine (with reinforce structure for sure), do you think it can make even more larger part sir? . How big the part is that can possible with this type home injection molding. I think about more larger part like a size our palm hand. Thanks.

Yay

how big of a pneumatic cylinder do your machines have?

Maybe use dowel pins but thread one end so they can be left on one side of the mold?

Interested in making aluminium mold how i can learn making one

what plastic do you use?? ABS ?

Machine and dayi praise

It's an humble request to make playlist of 4th axis machining setup ... Take offsets of xyzA .... Make program...run it... Please make 10 videos with all details if possible....

What happens to all the plastic sprews? Seems like some of your parts is more waste than part

you have a cnc machine, put some interlocks on your molds.

Why not just glue the pins in place?

..use an impact driver

Machine humko chahie

A pneumatic actuator on the lever to save wear and tear on your arm and shoulder? Repetitive injury. Keep yourself healthy. If you don't use enough to make it worth making a conversion video. 😉

The solution to pollution is dilution

You worry to much about the time it takes lol Just joking !

I am really impressed and your technology is really fruitful for my country Please send your contact number