(no subject)

[stormdog]

The response to me from Shadow's Ridge on my question about custom molding Spacewarp replacement parts:

Hi *my name*,

Can you take a digital photo of a part taken from a couple of angles?
Your sketch is good but I want to see if there needs to be a side pull
in the mold because that impacts the mold tooling cost. Also if you can
take a shot of the application I would know more. If what I am seeing (a
straight pull, .125 thick part in a little CNC'd one sided mold) it
should cost about $1200 and we could run the parts for .30 each. We
would build the tool here. If we move farther it would help if you could
send some parts or a good 2D drawing.

If there is any snap fit I can see why they might break in styrene that
has been molded 20 years ago. Probably a better material would be Acetal
(or Delrin) - nice lubricity and MUCH better mechanicals than styrene.

Thanks!

*Shadow's Ridge guy's name*

Oh well; custom molding was a nice thought, but...

Looks like I'm going to use crim_ferret's idea for machining polystyrene rods with a drill press and band saw. My dad says I can talk to him to arrange a time to use the school's machinery. Yay!

===========

Here's what I sent back.

Well, I have to admit that that's cost-prohibitive for me. I used
to work for a company that did pewter spin-casting and helped make molds
there, but I didn't have a good idea of what it would cost to set
something like what I'm looking for up to mold in plastic. It's out of
my price range I'm afraid.

But thanks so much for your time and effort! You're really helpful and
knowledgeable, and I appreciate it!

*my name*