RE: Plastic moulding

[...casting resin to remanufacture obsolete parts...]

> That sounds good to me.
>
Were Blaster sticks the same as used on Inferno? I might be able to
talk Mike into making some moulds if someone has a stick they want to
loan me... (The silicone and resins all "spoil" if you don't use them
within a day or so, so you have to kind do everything at once.)

> > Doing plastic injection moulding is expensive (as in probably
> $30-40K to
> > set up you joystick handle mould) to have a "real" shop do it.
> > Hobbiest-machines are non-trivial as well.
>
> I was hoping maybe some hobby kit was available. Oh well.
>
You need a lot of pressure to shoot liquid plastic. And a lot of heat.
Those two usually mean a metal mould, which is pretty hard to make
unless you're willing to spend some big bucks. We get laser-cintered
("SLA") prototypes done for our cases here. They're cool-- send the CAM
company a 3-D design file and about 2 days later you get a "plastic"
sample. Problem is you need an accurate 3-D model to start with.
They're also kinda brittle and prone to breakdown with heat. We got
some made with a different process that was a powered plastic that a
laser fused together. Tougher and heat-resistant, but they have a
strange rough-texture like sand-paper. I soaked one it epoxy and it's
*really* tough now, but you need that 3-D model to start. (And a couple
hundred bucks a pop for the sample piece.)

> > Depending on the complexity of the joystick handles (I kinda
> remember
> > them), a vacuum-formed mould might work too. Tough to get good
> detail
> > with it (were the handles checkered?), but you can use "real"
> plastic.
>
> Yeah, the handles have checker/dimples on them.
>
Sounds like a resin-casting would be the way to go...

For what it's worth, Mike make a vacuum-forming mould off my I,Robot
control panel so try making some of those. He hasn't got around to
doing anything on it yet though. (Busy making Storm Trooper suits for
Halloween...)

We were trying to come up with some stuff that would be neat to
reproduce for vector games, but there really wasn't much of anything we
could think of. Any ideas?

Oh, BTW, I've got a whole bunch of adhesive-mylar (like control panels
are made with) stickers coming later this week. They're labels for
"menu" buttons for MultiPac, the Sega Multigame, and SW/ESB selector
switches and some other stuff. Professionally screen printed. I'll
probably bundle up a half-dozen or so in little packages and sell them
for ~$5 a pack if anyone wants any to complete installation of their
kits. Just kinda fun, and it throws a few bucks towards my buddy that's
making 'em for me which helps keep him motivated to make other useful
stuff. ;-)

-Clay

-Clay
Received on Thu Nov 5 15:35:59 1998