During the last month-and-a-half of my residency at the Supplyframe Design Lab, I didn't write many updates to my Hackaday.io page because I was actually working hard on the project and didn't have time for much else. So I am now going back in time and reconstructing events for your edification.

I always knew that I'd have to find some way to produce the keyboards, but this project is too small to send out to some company for injection molding. Molds seem to be $6-10k each, and I've got at least 10 plastic parts! So, I'm hoping to find a DIY solution. Fortunately, fellow Design Lab resident Bruce Dominguez is working on a project that is almost entirely about injection molding, so perhaps I can ride on his coat tails a bit.

We had a conference call with a fellow who is knowledgeable about injection molding, and learned some things.

1. A "small" job is 5000 units.
2. Mold making is expensive (we knew that)
3. Aluminum molds are a thing that exists! While tool steel is preferred, aluminum molds can be used for small jobs. And since a "small" job is 5000 units, that seems reasonable for us.
4. There is a thing called a Morgan Press that is a more affordable injection molding machine. There is an even more affordable one from Medium Machinery. There is even an attachment for the Tormach CNC mill, but that is perpetually out of stock.

Now, the design lab does have a Tormach CNC milling machine that we could use to make molds, so the idea of DIY injection molding is a distinct possibility!

There is also the possibility of making molds for resin casting as an alternative. I could make nice prints using the fancy Objet printer in the lab and then make molds from those to resin cast. I have questions about the finish and quality of that type of material, and not really any time to research it, so it will have to wait until I leave the lab.

After that call, Dan tried to convince the bosses at Supplyframe to get us an injection molding machine for the Design Lab, but it was declined. But my eternal cry is "I know a guy!" and indeed, I knew of two places that had some sort of injection molding machine that was possibly available for our use. One is well known to me, MAGlab in Pomona has had a machine for years that they never had running.

Also, Hexlab in Northridge has an even bigger, more elaborate machine.

I brought Bruce over to MAGlab, and we took measurements and rubbings of the holes for attaching material to the MAGlab machine. It turns out that Trent from MAGlab actually used to work at a company running that machine and had a wealth of information for us on injection molding. I'm very optimistic about eventually getting his machine running and making parts on it! Bruce thinks it will take a long time to get it to work.

So I went to HexLab and talked to Mike about their machine. Well, I tried to.

What I got, instead of a look at the machine and a tracing of their fixturing, was a detailed analysis of my business plan for the NanoEgg synthesizer, a critique of my production ideas, my pricing, pretty much everything. He suggested to me that I could have everything made in China for far less than I anticipated, and his company would be willing to consult for a very reasonable rate...

In other words, I got a sales pitch and then got booted out the door with some prices for "further consultation".

I dunno, didn't sound right to me. If somebody wants my business, I don't pay them for the sales pitch. They can make and present a plan to me with estimates and "not-to-exceed" prices. Maybe he is right on all of the things he said (or maybe not?), but it isn't a very good sales pitch to tell the customer that his product is doomed to fail, unless this is some kind of scare tactic?

The whole thing made me feel really depressed for a couple of days, but it caused me to think more about my company and what I am trying to do. I know the modern way is to go out, get a whole bunch of venture capital, sell off most of your company before you have a product, pay out-of-house guys to make everything, and sell out early, but that was never my goal.

I just wanted to build a company the traditional way, selling a small number of products at first, adding staff as necessary to fulfill demand, making everything in house, and eventually having a small company with a handful of people building interesting things. I don't have to sell hundreds of thousands, I just have to sell enough to pay everybody and maybe grow the company a bit.

I always thought that was the American Dream. Maybe that isn't a thing anymore. I dunno. Other folks have tried to convince me of the same thing. Well, maybe I'll try it my way first, and if that doesn't work, THEN go to China?

A lot to think about. But is late... I'll write more later...