New stuff- why I have been stuck

  Been off the blog for a bit, but not idle for sure.  I decided that my first die assembly was not flexible enough and set about redesigning another.  Building a die is a lot of head scratching and fussing about, but I think it is going to work out. Above is the first plastic bit out of the die. It is a simple one piece mold of a billboard or sign, and it fits a business card on the front. I thought a warning sign would be cool on the battlefield. These are nice, but they wobble just a bit unless you flatten the bottom. I had to put a little draft on the mold and it made the bottom a bit . I am going to put them in the store and see if anyone wants them. I was going to add stickers, but the cost would have been a lot higher and it is easy enough to create a warning sign of anything you want, like this one inspired by Red Dwarf.    Now for the tanks. With the new die I am very confident I will not have part sticking issues. Next week is going to be busy.

New die assembly reinforcement.

  Here is a pic of a home made ejector die assembly. It is composed of 2 steel plates held apart by 4 rods and 4 tubes, each 4" long. The tubes have bolts that pass through to hold the 2 halves together, while the center 4 rods double a slide for the ejectors. The small central steel plate has 14 small rods welded to it, each 1/8" in diameter. An aluminum plate with matching holes drilled is bolted to this assembly with counter sunk hex head screws. The hoses allow cooling fluid to pass through the aluminum. I know it looks very primitive, but hey it works! And it was pretty cheap to make. It also allows me to quickly swap out plates and change products. Just thought I would show a picture of  how primitive things can be for those guys out there plotting to do this at home. Yesterday I replaced the tubes with heavier cast iron gas pipe sections because it looked like they were starting to buckle a bit under the pressure.
   Still working on more molds, it is a slow process. I broke another bit and have to re-run the guns for the roller tank. The trencher might have to be re-done, which I am reluctant to do. The parts do not fit without a bit of work and my attempts at increasing the tolerances have thus far failed. I might make some to sell on e-bay with a disclaimer that minor filing is required.
   I also spent some time talking with a 3D modeler who is going to help design products. I am very anxious to see what he can do.

Roller Tank preview

  This is what I am cooking up now. Found a basic model and modified it to make it fit in the setting to go with the other tanks. Broke a mill bit so it is going to be a few days before I get to see this one in action. I am working on some sci-fi alternative history stuff, and I figure some guys think the best way to get across no-mans land is to go really fast. Hence this suicide machine.
      The trencher tank is still being stubborn. I gave it a go today and it is still not right. The good news is I am getting a bigger army of them, as all the ones not good enough to sell wind up in my armored units. I made some adjustments and plan to have one more go. Tuesday I am determined to do the 25mm round bases first thing, then see if I can get the pieces to fit together on the tank without too much filing.

   Thanks to all the people who picked up the building.  I do plan on making more bits for the buildings. The first 2 are pretty interchangeable, the windows on the second are a little more pronounced. Used a bigger bit because they break less that way.  I got to do a doorway and maybe a couple of extra bits too.   I will try and keep making more parts for it.

Buildings available now.

  Went out and picked up some CRC brand mold release. It is a lot better than the Dupont stuff. Only have to spray about every 12 shots and it leaves almost no residue. Better yet, it says it is paintable so no need to wash off!  I made up some buildings last evening and added them to the store. Also modified the tank to try and get the parts to snap together better. I am going to fire some of them up on Monday. I still got to get those 25mm round bases done. I made the mold just have not run them yet.
   The old plastic machine may be haunted. It did OK, but got a little cranky at one point and started burning up again. You have to watch those readouts closely, cause turn your back and it starts cooking. Had to purge the overheated plastic out and resume running. Oddball intermittent issues like that are hard to correct. It works most of the time, but once in a while it likes to be difficult.
   Thinking about it being haunted might explain the bizarre hand pinching incident..................

Trencher tank part 2

  Ok, so here is a tank I made today. It is the same CAD drawing as my old one, just scaled down to 80%.  It turned out OK, the mold performed pretty well. It needs release agent more often than I would like, but I can not complain about that. Sort of the nature of plastic injection molding. The tanks I designed to be trench busters, hence the wide tracks and side mounted weapons to spray the hapless defenders.  Not sure about this one also, as the parts meant to be "snap together" turned out to be " smash together" or even worse " this stupid thing does not fit!". I am not understanding how parts fit OK in one mold and when resized they do not. It seems there is always something to learn and a new problem to overcome.
  I like the design and was hoping to sell a few at $4, but I do not want to be selling poorly fitted parts that need trimming. Then again, I have often purchased things that were poorly fitted and needed trimming. I painted it red like the building below. I sort of like the way it looks. The tank can be built with the parts simply glued together, it just makes it a bit wider. I might make a few up like that and see how it works.
   Oh well, back to the drawing board once again.

New building done ( almost)

  Well, back to work again. Made this building out of an aluminum mold. It works very well when sprayed with mold release, but sticks a bit if not. I am going to hand polish the edges a bit and see if I can get it popping out on full auto. When I do I will add to web store. If I have to spray that is fine, I will just have to wash the parts before they can be sold.  It is a nice piece with a bit of floor to place your troops on. I have been a bit inspired of late and have several more things planned or in the works. Looking into some real innovative production techniques that should increase my output. I really did not think it would take this long to be actually making production plastic parts, but it was a learning curve. So far I have all major base sizes done and a couple of buildings. Plus a small bucket full of molds to be sold off for scrap. Still beats paying student loans for the next 20 years and I probably learned better by trial and error.

New bases done

  I finally got around to adding the 20mm square bases to the web store. The new bulding is coming along fine and I have about half of the resized trencher tank done. Could be a good month if I can get these new molds done. I am inspired to push forward with more and more stuff, it just takes so long to do it. The weather was OK and forecast to get a lot better. I am going to paint a bit while I wait for the CNC's to do their stuff. I ordered some boxes today so I will be able to ship for quite a while with no stoppages.  Ran the plastic machine for about an hour with no problems. Now let's hope that keeps up!