I want to make a “Jesus fish”-like car emblem. I’ve searched a bit but can’t find anyone who can make it for me. i’m not sure even what to search for. Can anyone help?
Any decent art supply store should have plastic casting materials.
Here’s a product from Dick Blick that might serve your purpose.
It isn’t clear if you’re looking for a single item or mass production, but you could also try a rapid prototyping service.
Sorry, I am looking to make thousand of these and selling them.
Injection-molded plastic items require numbers much larger than 1,000. Typical mold costs for a simple mold are about $10,000, and that’s without resin, rental of an injection molder, setup costs, resin costs, and labor. So you’d have to charge more than $10 apiece just to get your expenses back. That’s why they run off hundreds of thousands of plastic items.
I had a friend who built his own Vac-U-Form mold and device. He hogged out the mold from a big block of aluminum, hooked up a vaxcuum pump to it, and placed plastic sheeting heated on his stove into the mold. Labor-intensive, but a lot cheaper than injection molding.
Ditto. It’s a Big Deal. My husband and his friend both work in plastics, and you need to run a ton to make a profit.
You can plan on spending a good $50,000 easily here. The look of shock on people coming into the die shop and asking for a mold is priceless. Add in the moloding costs and I’ve only seen two individuals ever have a die made and parts molded. A home set up is about the best you’ll likely be able to do. You had better have liability insurance or one injury by an idiot and your ruined.
You could get a run like that for under $10K at someplace like this, but then you’d have to pay more if you wanted them plated.
I’ve used Protomold before, with good results. Generally you’d use them for quick prototypes, and have a real mold made for mass production later.
Another prototype shop is eMachineShop.com. You design the part with their custom CAD software, and it can give you quotes instantly based on your design, material, and quantity.
A simple mold for something like what you’re talking about would run about $10-$20,000 if you have the mold made in China. You’d need to pay someone to make CAD drawings first, though - that will add a few thousand. If your design gets complicated (which happens very easily with seemingly simple designs), the cost goes up by the thousands very quickly. Getting the mold made in the US triples the cost at least.
I second the rapid prototyping being an option… You can relatively make an easy model of it in say, Solidworks and use the “Print3d” option to send the file to various rapid prototyping companies who can quote you:
That’s true, but something like Solidworks or Pro-E isn’t exactly cheap, either 
There’s also a pretty steep learning curve with software like that. A good compromise might be finding a design guy to create Solidworks or Pro-E drawings.
Antiques Road Show just showed the earliest Corvettes, and for the first time I’ve seen where a certain part I digitized belongs. It’s the pointy grill pieces. I see about fifteen go into the grill. It was one of the two dies I‘ve seen made for an individual… The man collected cars and sells the parts in magazines. Making them is expensive, but they sell to Corvette collectors.
The best thing to try perhaps is to get a place that makes customized items for company promotions to print up something for you. Maybe something like car dealers get made for the car. The firm would take a standard emblem bubble and print your picture on it. The kind of place I’m thinking of would offer pens, clocks, and other items for a company to have personalized for promotions.
Thanks, that was the charm!!
I hope you actualy find what you need with the path pointed out.