Examples of why it's not feasible to injection mold yourself

[mrlexan]

I ran across this and they have some really good pics. This should give some of you guys an appreciation for the amount of work that goes into the injection mold process... just on the CNC machining side of things. That doesn't cover the prototype or mold shop that needs to reallly know what they are doing with the material, temp, cool down, etc. when they actually start to spit out parts. Been there done that too in my past life.

http://www.2wdrc.com/News/10-03-2008.htm

Quick story time..... back at my days at Roush I went to our CNC facility that has three 5-axis machines and a ton of others. They had just received a $100,000 solid piece of Titanium that was HUGE. I can't remember the exact size, but it was bigger than my king size bed. Roush was contracted to machine the Lockheed/Boeing F22 air inlet out of solid Titanium. How cool is that? One of things that I will probably never see again that you must have an appreciation for.... one BIG FREGGIN hunk of Titanium!

[matteo]

I never realized how much work went into making a mold. The prototype and r&d would have to be very expensive. Will the chassis for this truck be plastic? Very cool.

[mrlexan]

Likely yes, it will be some type of reinforced plastic.

[Brandon G]

It will be a graphite reinforced composite.

Paul Sinclair has been running a test truck at our local track for quite some time now. They took the X6 buggy chassis, cut it crosswise , and added an extension to lengthen it. It's amazing what you can do with a little super glue and some creativity.

Oh, by the way, the truck hauls balls.

[Brandon G]

Chazz came down the weekend of the Worlds in NC. He was talking about their first prototype chassis being milled out of a solid peice of delrin. He was saying that the delrin would flex like mad.

He also stated that the next one they get made (prototype) would be milled out of magnesium.

[Bongo Fury]

Plus those pictures don't show, at least I don't see, the complexity of the supporting features, gates/sprues for getting the material in, vents for pulling air out, seals, flash grooves, overflow areas, heating and/or cooling, consideration for shrink, yada yada. Plus all of this has to be coordinated with the design and function of the part. Sure seems simple enough in concept, but a lot of details that make or break it. Not to mention the injection press it goes in.

[GJW]

titanium and carbon my favorite gear in the whole world,what are those mold made from? alloy,,id love to see that hunk of titanium wonder if i could lift it that is wild jay

[Brandon G]

Talked with Paul a little bit last weekend. He had the freshly moulded truck chassis on the track and an extra sitting in the pits. Let me just say, this new chassis is on par quality wise with the best of em. (Losi/AE) VERY nice and clean moulding. The maturing of X Factory is evident in this new truck chassis.

He also mentioned that the mould itself is made out of Aluminum alloy. Steel would be employed if higher volume runs were anticipated, but of course costs more for initial machining.

By the way, he hammered the heck out of it with absolutely no breakage.

[JK Racing]

I am considering the X-60 conversion for my T4....gotta be different. Maybe I should run my 10T...

[FasterLouder]

Nice to run into you again,Joey.
I have an X Factory X-6,the AE B4 buggy conversion.
I bought X Factory's 'Total 4-Gear Update Package' last year and it's a beautiful bit of engineering.
The 4 gear tranny is super smooth and the inertia of the motor winding up really plants the rear wheels-similar to an old 'Sidewinder' dragster that were around in the '60's.
Everything old is new again...

[FasterLouder]

Here's a photo of the 4-gear X-6,sans body: