Heather, another source to put in your contact list is protomold, just look them up. they have first cut as well so you can get quotes on small molding or machining projects. Cost of course goes down with greater volume.

Micheal it’s a great tool cad and less mess . Not like joinery I would really like to do a course to get the full potential of it.
It makes prototyping or artistic license easy.

Dave, Nice illustrative work on your 12mm pitch!

Dave,

Just seeing your avatar photo, makes me excited. Now I will going crazy trying to think about what the rest of it is. Cool idea! :)

OH!! And thanks for the link above to that ICO MOLD company! I now have them looking at a project for me. :-)

Great news

I never do, Dave ;)
I am loving all of the support and offering of services! Everyone has been wonderful – especially Scooter, who is lending me a hand!! Can’t thank him enough!!
Now, onto bringing the components together. I found a source in China for the other element I seek for this little product.
Time to get busy!!

Hi Heather
Tooling costs money that’s it, You will always get better prices on volume. If you can make profit on this price then you will make more
when the volumes go up. It’s hard for me to speak about real costs but it’s a big eye opener when you get to the right people. numbers game.
You have on this site on your side of the pond some good people that are willing to lend a hand you do not have to give them the full product idea but if they are willing to help you create a 3D model and a low cost prototype to see if you have got a money making idea i would take the help. Best of luck Heather from across the pond. My avatar shows a part of a new product idea and i am happy to show it but you would never in a thousand years get what new product idea i want to use it for. That’s what i am saying when you only give people i little bit of the picture. Then it’s your job to bring all the components together . A little tip never judge a book by its cover.

Dave

With that site,
I got a part cost of about $460
cost per piece for about 1000 pieces is .22/each.
maybe I’m doing it wrong? it’s only like a cm wide.

Interesting link Michael .

Heather,
I found this link for you, they have an online cost estimator that you can click on for cost ideas. For your part, I estimated .5×.5×.1 and simple part. Tooling was estimated at just over $300. The part quantity is the fun one…it is set at 200 parts (probably their minimum), but put a larger number in and watch the price per part drop.
Never worked with this company, but maybe a place to get started…http://www.icomold.com/

Go get em Heather. Keep it simple! Everything is, until we think it’s not enough:)

yeah, I got confused… it’s all good. Yes, ours is SUPER simple- but, I hope a hit with teens/tweens/older kids.

Jerry the next hard bit is adding motion to make the product come alive this is a bit of a challenge also but getting there. Rpm and travel etc.

Reminds me of a tool I once designed and prototyped wherein I needed a 1/16th in. pitch…a 3/8th coarse thread bolt was just the ticket!

Good Luck on your projects!

We go from a rather simple plastic part to this… “move forward 3m to 5 mm in just over 100 degree turn of a lever creating a locking action” and “For 3 to 5 mm of travel in 100 deg. you would be looking for aprox. a 12mm pitch. The pitch= the distance from the top of one thread to the top of the next” *My head is starting to spin fast :-)

Oh…and their is ALOT of brain picking going on in these forums and everyone seems to be very cool about it too! :))))

Best of luck Heather! Hope to see the finished product one day.

with a 12mm pitch I would say its real fast! LOL

Think i just created a neat ride LOL It looks fast.

Any time David. Good luck bro.

Thanks a lot John that is what i call networking i owe you one .
Dave
Let’s see see if i can put it into practice.

David, so what your trying to figure out is the pitch of the thread. For 3 to 5 mm of travel in 100 deg. you would be looking for aprox. a 12mm pitch.(The pitch= the distance from the top of one thread to the top of the next.) that should put you right in your range. Hope this helps. Btw, I’m not an engineer either but I’ve been machining for the better part of 17 years now and have learned alot of shortcuts in that time.

John i am working on a new design and i think a it would be good to incorporate a fast thread i want to make a machine screw move forward 3m to 5 mm in just over 100 degree turn of a lever creating a locking action. This i am drawing as i speak and it is a little hard for me to do in my 3d cad. It’s understanding the maths. I am a joiner not a engineer.

Hey David, Fast threads? Do you mean like an ACME thread kinda like a ball screw on mills and lathes? What do you need to know about them?
Pick away Heather, I accepted your friend request and shot you an email. If you didn’t recieve it let me know and I’ll give you my yahoo addy.

This is what I love about this place!

Thanks everyone!! John, I think I may just pick your brain about that!
Heather

John what do you know about fast threads i need a bit of help

You can always look to local machine shops in your area. Small shops should be more that glad to help you out. I know, I run a machine shop. If you have any other questions about machine shops friend me and ask away. I would think you could get a machine shop to do it for under $50 if it’s that simple of a part. Heck, if it’s that simple I might just do it for the price of postage. I get bored sometimes. Ha!

The craft store has lots of stuff. You can sculpt it and put it in the oven to harden.

Heather,

If you can make an accurate model from wood,sculpty etc. you could then make a flexable rubber mold and produce the part yourself…check into Polytec or Smooth On they both sell mold and casting resins in small sizes and have excellent instructional support.

Heather,

For a thumbprint size plastic part you could have a rapid prototype created in just a couple days for less than a hundred bucks. But you will have to have a cad image created as well, which my guess would be a hundred bucks or so as well. It may be worth it though if it will complete your prototype.

oh gosh, it’s so simple it’s ridiculous. I’ve tried looking at hardware stores, craft stores, just can’t find it… :(
I’ve found a toy manufacturer that makes something fairly close, but, I don’t think that’s a hot idea to take their product and make it into mine. ;)
Will it sell? That’s the million dollar question…

Hi Heather how complex is the part, moulds cost 1,000s have you prototyped the part yet! Will it sell. It’s all a risk if you have protection or can generate real orders you may find a small plastic manufacture to amortize the mould price in the part cost. Just a little feed back.
Good luck