Comment by aDyslecticCrow | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aDyslecticCrow | Hacker News Reader

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That video from smarter every day was an eye opener. The effort to just make the simple mold was frightening. The chase to find a single source for a standard screw disheartening.

I've talked with some friends here in europe after seeing that video, and apparently tool and die remains more avaliable here. (Metal casting is impossible nationally though)

I suspect the larger travel distance to China from europe create a market nieche that keep it alive when quick iteration is important. I dont think we succeeded better politically basides that luck. (Trades is frowned opon in the same way)

Locally we have a good prototype industry for cirquitboard design (we work with them regularly), but very few large scale producers. The companies that make electronics nationally often have their own cirquitboard factories for their usecase.

But that doesn't work for new companies trying to create new products. The most common approach is to send the design to China and get a pallet of cirquitboards back fully assembled. (With frankly excellent expert support for any issues discovered in manufacturing)

I strongly believe that video exaggerates for effect. You can buy a CNC mill capable of cutting molds on Amazon. And you can rent Fusion 360 for a few dollars per day. And a low volume injection molding robot costs ~ $10k

That means any middle sized company could have this in-house if they wanted to.

At a comparable price to what you could get in China?

In-house will probably be cheaper.

As a mid-sized company, you care about IP protection. That means the price for China will need to include bilingual lawyers. Otherwise you might end up in the super awkward position that your mold gets copyrighted by the manufacturer inside China. That would then allow your contract manufacturer to prohibit other injection shops inside China from working with you.

You are severely underestimating the expertise and complexity in tool and die making. Cutting the metal is the simple part. The core difficulty wasn't producing the part nor mold; it was finding a guy who knew how.

My team has produced multiple molds for plastic injection moulding in the past. Yes, it took the CAD guy a month of training to get a feeling for draft angles and how well certain shapes will eject. And yes, you will spend some days waiting for CNC milling. But it’s neither particularly expensive nor particularly difficult.

You found a really great CAD guy, pay them well. Others struggle to find people to hire with the right knowledge, or struggle to train up the knowledge without existing in-house expertise.

Parts also vary in complexity; throwing a CAD guy without CNC knowledge in front of a 5 axis CNC and telling them to make a injection mold, doesn't feel too far off from giving a soldering iron to a software guy and asking them to design a circuit-board. It may work out if it's simple, but be prepared to invest a-lot of time letting them fail and build up a skill-set if you need something complex.

I have heard from an acquaintance that once you have a good mold, there is no reason to not just injection-mold nationally.

So, you have to hire a new employee? OK.

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