Frank

Funny how people take color as if it were a set standard. Saying watermelon does not mean it is a standard color. Never seen two that are the same so what color are you really going to get? You may say it's watermelon because you have never seen any other color. But in fact what you think is watermelon may not be what you get. Same with many many other colors. Most Manufacturers can't even get the same color cinsistant everytime. And they make large batches which is harder to get wrong than a small batch. I am sure the color you get will be some version of watermelon.

Funny you mention that there is shops that don't want to let you learn a new skill. I was invited to a meeting for my local college machining tech Dept. We were talking over some things that the machining industry might want to see come from the college. One of the last statements was about weather some people don't want to teach others the way they do there job. It was pretty much unanimous that it does happen more than they want it to but change is on the horizon. If they want to let you learn then take them up on all they will help you with. Just remember even with these programs there is many many ways to get a job done. Some are faster and some give a better finish. You will need to learn things the way your mind works. We are not all the same and don't learn the same. After a year of using mastercam I still don't draw or program like most of the other guys in my class. But I get what I want.

Learn it and use it, you will not be disappointed. Its a lot of work in the beginning but long term you will be more valuable to your company. And to the industry if you ever have to look for another job. Or start making molds!!!

It's a flow thing as long as the viscosity is close it won't mix unless it is provoked to. Hook slots are a real problem for this kind of stuff. Shallow ones are better but it still might cause a small swirl at times. Lower temps are less susceptible to this type of stuff. Slow steady pressure helps a lot too.

This is why it is much better to take a coarse. You will learn how to draw what you need then make a boundary box which is a block of material you will machine. The next step is to program the machining steps one at a time. You have seen this many times before. You will add tools to the job one at a time and load the cutting perameters you feel comfortable with. For a mold it wold be facing roughing finishing and chamfer if needed. This sound simple but there are many steps to achieve the look you want. Thus the reason for the simulation mode. What you will get will be really close to what you see. Mastercam has a feature based machining that will do a lot of the work for you with the tools you give it, but them you are confined to what the computer thinks you want. Works OK on some 2d parts but gets really confused with 3D stuff( maybe me that's confused). Run times are long but for a one off some guys don't want to spend time programming something that might be changed. I have had bobcad for a few years now and saw many of there videos but until I took a class that showed me real life things to machine it never made sense. Now it is a world of difference. Importing files sometime can be a real challenge as sometimes details are lost but for them I guess you could find a video for that situatuion. So in short it does not just program for you, you have a large part in what is going on. I know you can draw in these programs but for the regular shop guys you will be getting a file like the one Dave sent you and you will work with it from there. But you will at times need to add lines and arcs to aid in machining so not sure if it a good idea to skip the learning how to draw part.

You also mentioned they might have mastercam is there a way to train on that? They have a good online coarse for it and it will help you understand how they think. After it will be much easier to cross over to bobcad. The only reason I say that is I have both but master cam is a home learning edition and won't post code. My Bob cadcam will and working with it after was a breeze. Have not found a good instruction book or coarse for my Bobcad. They will teach you but it could get costly.

Cut it at an angle so there will be more surface area to stick. A straight cut will have less area to stick. If you want to wait you can put bond coat from Spikeit and it will adhere much better but it takes time to dry.

That not fair he could have some one cam it out and post the code. Then just copy it. Unless he is in front of you writing code then you don't know if he wrote it.

Some of you guys think this is the first time this has been talked about or even been done. If it works so well why did Spikeit go through all the r&d to develope a safer waterbased paint. I know the vpi paint is way better but the smell that goes with it is a bit much for me. Time will tell and like all the other times this will go away. I painted next to Ken Huddleston at icast a couple of years ago and I think we had ten colors of water based paint and I will tell you he can make some pretty nice looking stuff with a limited palate. He has always used the solvent paint so it was new to him too.

Mine used to bog down when in the simulation mode. Not with the drawing. My new one was not cheap but it was not the best for the job either. Good thing all of my boys are computer savvy cause I would be in trouble. Electric car now that's funny I just went on a tour at the Tesla factory. One of my teachers got me in on a special tour. Pretty bad a$$ to see all the machines working to make a truly different car. Sorry to get off subject.

Well said DAve there is a place here for this discussion. Now when you plunk down your hard earned money for a custom mold at least you will know he is not JUST pushing a button and collecting money. I have been working on learning cad/cam for the past two years and have learned a lot from some real heavy hitters in the industry. The work involved in this to be GOOD is tremendous. 3D guys are a rare breed and if you are real good at it you won't make molds for plastic you will be making molds for everything else you see around you. If you are thinking about this and really want to know some of what is being talked about here, a lot of the cadcam company's will let you try them for free. If you are good at 3D drawing and programming you might want to give it a try. All the ones I have used have a simulation mode so you can see what you have after the machining simulation is done. One other thing you will find out is how good your computers graphics card is.

So it sounds like you need to program for the machine you have to optimize time spent. Some guys will not do that and end up being mad the machine won't do what they want. That 440 is not much cheaper than the others and most of the add one are the same price or a little more. Weight of the machines is where there is a big difference.

Try this paint the back black and when you think it is dry pull it and see how the paint cracks and chips off. Even if it is under a plastic dip it will let go. Not to mention some plastic leaches out an oily product while in the bag and when that happens you paint will come off too. Unless it is real really light in color then it would be hard to see but it does not stick. Why does the cratex make painting a soft bait a game changer? There are some bait makers out there that do some pretty great work with the stuff on the market that is made for plastic.

Thirty hours to run one side of a mold wow I bet you made a bundle on that mold Bob. People read this carefully if you are thinking of doing this. 3D design and programming is no easy task. And for the price point of a tormach you don't get many bells and whistles. With a lot of new cnc machinist time is precious cause you won't have much left over for things like sleep!! Eating can be done as long as you like the smell of coolant. Not to mention the sound of a machine running all day long.

Well for someone who has done this type of work for 30 years it is easy. Writing a code for a 3D model is another story. Writing code for 2d is doable for some. Before some one was to buy a machine to make molds really look into what it really takes to make a mold. There are many programs out there for many price ranges but you get what you pay for. Using these programs have some quirks and understanding what is going on is key and at least for me that is the challenge.

What's funny about this post is having a machine does not make you a mold maker. They will cut a mold but who's going to program it? That's the real challenge. Sure you could run simple programs but even those have limits if you can't draw it and produce code for the machine to use. Then there's the cad cam program, the good well known ones are pricey and not easy to just start drawing. My point is it sounds like a good idea but it's way more complicated to actually do.

Now that one looks like it was thought of long and hard. He does do nice work.

Well when Bob told me about them being partners I might have missed some of the details(cause I was laughing to hard) so forgive me if the story is off a little bit. As for being someone's designs I think we all know who had the designs first and still does. Maybe it is just me but the real good designers have a style about them and it shows in the molds they produce. A lot of people think making molds is easy and for some it is but you can see easy in the mold design.

Here is a little more history. Bob and Del were once partners making molds. You see how that turned out. When they split Bob did his own thing and made the money minnow. That was sold to Yum. I believe at the time Kevin was helping him out and started to make some of his own designs thus Basstackle was born. Basstackle and Bobs then joined then Bob and Kevin were working together on both big molds and small ones. Both of there designs were on the site. If you followed the progression at all they were putting out new molds at an alarming rate. Mainly because there was two of them designing. Don't know what happened but they split and we have what is two company's producing great molds. Both of them are born into the machining trade and you can tell they know what customer service is. I could not believe that Bob and Del were partners, that blew me away when Bob told me that.

They are cousins and about the same age. Both great guys. Just shows they were brought up right. and they were brought up in a machine shop so that tells you a lot about them.

I sent you that injector. That was a long time ago.

They are red. It was a color I made up real quick. I have colors like peach and light orange around but just threw this together.

Here is my way. Not all are good but some are.

Maybe you could explain why? He might want to know.

I would call it more of a evolution. From the beginning they had tubes that were not true and varied a lot. So they honed them out to make the tolerances better but then all the parts were custom fit as Dave said. Now they back bore the tip of the tube so the tips are all the same. So now all the tips should be the same and the part that fits in to the molds should be just under 5/8" so it will fit easy. Don't want to tight of a fit there or it is miserable to move from mold to mold. The top cap has undergone a lengthening to help with a binding feel with the twinjector. That's. The reason they don't offer parts to make your own twinjector they are fit before they go out the door. I have many different injectors from them and like that they continue to improve on a great design. I was the one who came up with the locking pin design in the first place and they embraced it to become standard on all of there injectors. Learn and make it better is forward thinking at its finest.