DIY injection molding in the FabLab

We received a defective manual injection molding press as a donation – unfortunately unusable due to a crack in the housing and thick deposits.

After dismantling, we built a completely new machine from the leftovers, an old drill stand and self-made parts.

Since injection molding needs small plastic shreds or pellets, we repurposed a broken kitchen blender with 3D-printed parts – now it shreds old plastic boxes or filament scraps into perfect starting material.

For our first project, we designed a two-part mold and produced it from resin using the Formlabs SLA 3D printer. The transparent material gives us a full insight into the process and shows exactly whether the mold is filled correctly.

Our first result: a universal cable clip!

Injection molding offers several advantages over 3D printing:

– Faster >> One part in just 4 minutes
– Variety of materials >> No problems with adhesion or warping
– More stable >> No layers, same load-bearing capacity in all directions

We can’t wait to see what comes next!