One of the most common questions we get involves the cost and details needed for us to provide a custom item.  In our thirty years of business, we have created thousands of molds to produce products for our customers. During that time we have been asked to create shapes and forms in an endless variety of textures. While we always suggest a mold that we currently have in-house, some items are not really substitutable or we do not have a mold that is close enough in size to be utilized.  This means that we are going to have to “custom fabricate” the product.

In our last blog entry, I went over the initial steps in making a custom part starting with building a “master”.  The next critical step is the fabrication of the mold for production.  Molds are fabricated in a multitude of configurations and materials.  We make both hard molds and soft molds, depending upon the part.  In addition, the molds can be simple or a multi-part breakaway mold that is disassembled to release the part.  All of this is determined in the estimating and engineering process before we start.

Regardless if it is a soft mold or a hard mold, the quality of the finished part is contingent upon the time and quality of the mold.  We, therefore, allow for sufficient time to allow the mold to be reinforced, have proper draft angles built so the part will release and sufficient time for it to cure before it is sealed and prepped for production.  Any of these steps done improperly can cause a huge delay in the mold being ready, or worse, requiring the mold to be made again.

One of the final things to be considered in the mold making process is the total number of parts anticipated to be produced from the mold.  Each type of mold has a “life” or number of parts that can be made from it before it deteriorates to the point where part quality suffers.  Many times we will make multiple molds on a project for a given part because of the life of the mold or when we have a short lead-time for the number of parts.  While molds are expensive, it is sometimes better to have multiple molds to produce the parts at a higher rate to meet a deadline on a project.  This combination of factors is developed by the plant and the engineer to find the most cost effective combination.

While all of this detail may seem overly complex, you must realize that we are creating a three dimensional object from two dimensional drawings in a composite material that will be cast multiple times.  As a result, there are a lot of factors we have to take into account to make a cornice, column or bracket to your exact specifications.

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