05-11-2010, 11:54 AM
Russ is right on about the cost of tooling vs. the price of the product. The fewer parts produced, the higher the cost of the part. Cast resin tooling is considerably less expensive than cutting steel for high pressure injection molding, but the cost of the original patterns will not be cheap, considering the amount of work involved in producing a pattern to produce a highly detailed reproduction. You get whet you pay for.
And let us not forget tool life - Tool steel for high pressure injection molding can produce millions of parts, especially in a multi-cavity mold. Tooling for a cast resin part, although considerably cheaper, has a much shorter life span and, depending on the size and complexity of the part, is probably a single cavity tool, which limits the number of parts produced before a new tool must be built.
The price of the Baby Face shell is not altogether unreasonable, I don't think, if you take into account the current price of a cast resin Westerfield or Funaro & Camerlengo kit.
And let us not forget tool life - Tool steel for high pressure injection molding can produce millions of parts, especially in a multi-cavity mold. Tooling for a cast resin part, although considerably cheaper, has a much shorter life span and, depending on the size and complexity of the part, is probably a single cavity tool, which limits the number of parts produced before a new tool must be built.
The price of the Baby Face shell is not altogether unreasonable, I don't think, if you take into account the current price of a cast resin Westerfield or Funaro & Camerlengo kit.
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln