Custom Mould Making

CUSTOM MOULD MAKING

We have been undertaking the manufacturing of an increasing number of custom moulds for soaps, chocolates, candles, plaster and concrete.

We are now in a position to quote on individual custom mould work. Our main difficulty up to date has been in convincing people that the master moulds from which we make, say our $5.95 range of vacuum formed plaster moulds, costs our company an estimated average price of $250.00 to $300.00 to produce. We have to amortise this cost into a pay back from sales over many years before we turn a profit.

For the simpler type of latex or plaster mould it is not economic to have us make your moulds unless you can work this kind of cost into your sales program. Better for us to provide you with the knowledge on how to make your own moulds and use your own free labour. Of course not every type of production mould can be made this way and this is where we can help with our computer programs and computer aided machinery.

We are now in a position to offer good prices on custom made silicone, polyurethane and vacuum formed plastic moulds.

MOULD MANUFACTURING METHODS

There are many ways to make a mould and largely it depends on what the finished product is like, which mould type and casting method is used.

If the original was a sculpt in clay to make a delicate figurine we may use the destructive plaster technique to make a polyurethane or silicone mould and so it goes on. This makes it very difficult to give a ball park figure for mould making.

Moulds using company logos usually start with a drawing or sketch or sometimes with finished artwork that we can use by vectorising. We then make a computer generated 3D version to use for the mould master after machining.

 

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO HAVE A MOULD MADE ?

Please send us details of what you require and we will give you an estimate followed by a firm quote once we have received all the material.

As every job is different all we can do is give you some indication of what we charge for different types of moulds. A flat backed vacuum formed mould of an original 30cm figurine resized to 20cm but not altered in any way cost $235.00 plus GST for total computer and CNC machining time for production of the master mould. Each mould cost $5.95 from then on..

Working from design drawings for our own moulds at least an additional hours computer work would have had to be added to cater for our internal specifications.

We calculate custom mould making costs on a time basis; Computer time $100.00/hour, CNC machine time $60.00/hour, Laser Engraving $60.00/hour and Sandblasting $60.00/hour.

If the mould was required to be made in silicone the cost of the set up time to pour the silicone and the cost of the silicone would need to be added..

A straightforward flat backed silicone mould of an original say 10cm diameter would require say 15 minutes set up time and the cost of the silicone required. Total $45.00 plus GST.

 

REORDERS

We retain all production materials and computer files in case additional working moulds are required, which are charged out at the same rate as our stock mould series. For plastic hobby vacuum formed moulds charges are $5.95,$8.95 and $10.95. For pavers, prices start at $15.00 depending on size and plastic type and thickness used.