Ryan or Welson,

Might either of you have connections to plastic, as well? I am customizing a 2-piece twisting keychain/toy (picture two ordinary one-inch blocks with images on each side) to accompany a children’s book I’m working on. The book characters will be on the toy itself, and am thinking of an initial run of about 1K. If anybody has any advice, I’d be grateful. Thanks.

I just watched a Youtube video of this 3D prototype maker! Really amazing! Here is the link:

I am not an Insider(yet) but cut and paste this into the Youtube search box. Amazing!

watch?v=P2OZ01vaN2g

Ralph,
Great advice. Would you be able to make a 3D image so I can then have it made? I had John Valardi do a professional image for me but it is not a mathematical drawing. Can this be done from pictures i have?

Sorry, but I wouldn’t trust the Chinese as far as I could throw one! ZERO Protection on your inventions!!

Hi, Robert,
We can help you for the prototype. With small qty runs.
For stamping,we can make them by Laser cutting and CNC bending.
And for over moulding, we can arrange Silicone tooling and over mould with the Silicone tooling.
I think for the ability, better you review some of our jobs, then you can be confident of us.
We are based in Xiamen, China. as we are servicing some of the Famous Australia Design company(Such as Design and Industry, Black Magic design), so we are doing the very high quality prototype for them. For shipping, we can do DDU service.
If you are intestested, we can sign a NDA for your project and receive your drawing for quote.

Thanks everyone for the info!

Ryan – how do you find IP protection in Taiwan? What about working conditions in the factories?

I am Living in prototyping/manufacturing central AKA Taipei Taiwan.
Unlike the bad rep of the 1980s of made in Taiwan today Taiwan
Produces some of the highest quality goods in the world
for the cheapest production rate vs quality ratio. Research
luxury yachts if you do not believe me. Taiwan is #1 surpassing
Euro made yachts. Its Japanese quality with china production costs,
truly the best of both worlds. Its no wonder Taiwan boasts the unofficial biggest
Lamborghini club in the world. anyway enough of the blah blah blah,
I am the go to guy tell me numbers materials etc… I will give you a quote

Hi All. I use an EOS M270 and an Objet Connex 500 everyday. Both machines are great for making prototypes. The EOS creates rapid metal prototypes using 17-4SST. The EOS uses a laser to melt powdered 17-4 layer by layer at a thickness of only 20 microns. It continues layer by layer until you have a complete part. The building tolerance for this machine is a tight plus or minus .001". The Connex creates plastic prototypes using UV curable resin. The Objet can also use two seperate materials at the same time. With the two materials you can either blend a softer and harder material at 20 percent blend rates to get variable degrees of flex. You can also run those two materials seperate but on the same part to show overmolding or soft buttons on a hard part or even living hinges, etc.
Feel free to contact me if you would like more information on eiher machine.

Depending on the nature of the prototype, it’s intended purpose, and it’s complexity ~ to fabricate from steel may not be very expensive. There are too many unknowns and you won’t know until you get quotes.

Great leads everyone … Ralph after your post I actually went out searching .. Still looking but closer !!

Robert-

You have some good leads here and hopefully they work out well for you! As an aside, the 3D printing services I have mentioned are going to be your best best for a prototype, or one off. Even though they don’t print it in steel, they can print in an wide range of engineering plastics, ABS, Polycarbonates AND they can even do overmolds quite easily. This gives you the ability to check form, fit and function for low cost.
I don’t know how easy it will be to find someone will to create a steel stamp tool, (for cheap) stamp out your steel plate and then they most likely will have to sub out the Silicone overmolding portion. Most steel factorys are just that: Steel and metals. I can get a decent prototype made in less than a week (depending on the overall size that is) for less than 300-500 dollars. 3D printers do have a size constraint, but the bigger units have made full size landing gear units for NASA and Lockheed Martin. If they’re good enough for the space boys, then they’re good enough for me. : ) That’s why I use them.

My favorite advice I’ve read for prototyping is to contact a local industrial design and/or engineering school to find talented students to work at great rates. A true win/win as they get to learn outside of their class scope, make money, and build their portfolio. Andrea, my semi-alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, is there in Pittsburgh and is one of the top ranked industrial design schools.

Look in the yellow pages under Sheetmetal (precision). Find three companies and get a quote on 5,50, 300 and ____ for prototypes. Do the same on the other aspects of fabrication. Have a blueprint in hand, don’t go there with an idea and some extravagant story about how great your idea is. They will simply want to make it and be paid. Look at their shop also, and look at the quality of the parts in their showroom if they have one. If you don’t feel comfortable with doing this, message me.

All-

I have posted a few things relating to prototyping/short runs. Try the green search button upper right hand corner of the site, but not too sure of the results. The search here seems a bit on the fritz…still.

I am fortunate enough to have access to an Eden Objet 250 3D printer in my office and make prototypes..alot!
http://www.objet.com/3D-Printer/Objet_Eden250/
As soon as I some enough extra cash (like 50k plus) I’m going to buy one for my own personal use. They really are worth it. Now, for those of you who do not have access, don’t despair: they are usually within reach both physically and budget wise. As I posted earlier, many universities and colleges with good engineering departments have these now, and many will print jobs for a fair fee. There are also companies online that do the same thing: you upload your computer drawing in .STL format and they print it out based on an agreed material for the use. NOTICE: Many, if not all of these places will NOT sign an NDA, so only send them parts or components that you are not concerned about disclosure. Very important! The 3D printed prototypes are the way to go, forget metal casting, machining, etc… The speed and low cost is worth its weight in gold!

One of the online sources I used in the past was RedEye Online-
http://www.redeyeondemand.com/About.aspx
(they will not sign an NDA, however)but good overall service and results.
Another near me, but haven’t had time to check them out yet:
http://www.cpmfastools.com/rapid-tooling/Colora...

Basically if you search around for 3D Printing or FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling)you will find something!
Anyone with questions – shoot me an email or message as this is my area of speciality. : )

Yes, I am interested as well…cheap prototyping would be my request!! I would like to hear if anyone has done it and what the experience was!