They do have plastic welding equipment to repairs breaks in plastics -
certain kinds. They meld a plastic rod into the part to provide filling
of the break and strength. I don't know how well they work or how
widely they are used. Does anyone have any experience with them?
Most plastic injection molds use metal for the mold. This involves the
use of something like a wire-EDM machine which is very precise but very
slow. Perhaps a cheaper substance could be used for small quantity
production. How about a resin? Resin molds can be produced in three
dimensional forms from machines that resemble computer printers
inexpensively and it can even be sent via internet to almost anywhere
and "printed" remotely. Depending on the part, absolute accuracy in
size and dimensions may be somewhat less important than say in something
like the plastic encasement in an electrical switch.
Are any of the parts able to be replaced with another material? If they
can be casted in something like aluminum, they maybe relatively
inexpensive. I wonder if that would work for the B skin?????? We could
have a casted skin in some titanium alloy. Just kidding!
Amo #1207
Isensee@aol.com wrote:
>I have several collector cars. Every once in a while some small plastic part
>will break as it gets brittle with age and some of them are not reproduced.
>I am wondering if anyone knows of a cost effective way to reproduce small
>plastic parts?
>
>I have looked around on the web and most suppliers want a lot of money to
>create a mold. They can then turn out the individual parts pretty cheaply, but
>
>you need to make a lot of them to get the unit costs down. I am interested in
>just creating individual parts for myself or maybe producing small runs with
>extras I can sell to other restorers. Any ideas?
>
>Scott Isensee
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