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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Pacifist on Fri, 04 July 2014, 00:17:20

Title: extruding 3d printer material into molds
Post by: Pacifist on Fri, 04 July 2014, 00:17:20

Does anybody know if its possible to extrude plastic such as abs from a 3d printer into a mold to make a keycap? Only issue I see with it is clogging and solidifying before it reaches the bottom

Title: Re: extruding 3d printer material into molds
Post by: mkawa on Fri, 04 July 2014, 00:25:42

what you're describing is aka injection molding. filament extruders can't handle this for a number of reasons, but the primary one is that filament deposition mechanics are not built to handle backpressure.

Title: Re: extruding 3d printer material into molds
Post by: jacobolus on Fri, 04 July 2014, 01:47:34

You might find http://www.reddit.com/r/ResinCasting/ useful.

If you want to do injection molding, I think you’ll need some fancy expensive machinery.

Then again, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/210417487/bench-model-plastic-injection-machine

Title: Re: extruding 3d printer material into molds
Post by: Matt3o on Fri, 04 July 2014, 01:55:44

Quote from: jacobolus on Fri, 04 July 2014, 01:47:34

You might find http://www.reddit.com/r/ResinCasting/ useful.

If you want to do injection molding, I think you’ll need some fancy expensive machinery.

Then again, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/210417487/bench-model-plastic-injection-machine

great resources thanks! sooner or later I gotta try it

Title: Re: extruding 3d printer material into molds
Post by: mkawa on Sat, 05 July 2014, 12:03:54

there are a couple of "desktop injection molders", but they're basically low pressure casters. actual injection molding needs basically room-sized machinery and extremely high, dangerous pressures.

Title: Re: extruding 3d printer material into molds
Post by: Matt3o on Sat, 05 July 2014, 12:17:57

every time mkawa replies to a thread, a unicorn dies... :P

let us dream, mkawa! :D