7800MX1 - Plastic Tooling Update

[Curt Vendel]

Okay, another run was made, final adjustments to eliminate the "dimples" is being made this week and then the molds receive their texturing. Latest mold shots sent to me this morning...

 

 

 

[GroovyBee]

Looking good!

[Spurge]

Looks great and thanks for keeping people updated. Anyone else find this really fascinating? How this stuff gets designed and made? I would love to see more on how this happenes. Please post more pics as the process goes along, i'm really intereted on how you do it.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Spurge

[mimo]

is that a cut out for an SIO socket on the back?

looking gooood

[Curt Vendel]

I'll ask the tooling maker if they could snap some shots of the actual steel tooling innards so people can see what the negative cavities look like.

 

Essentially what happens is it all starts with a drawing, in this case a March 1984 drawing done by Atari Industrial Design Tom Palecki whom I purchased the drawings from. This was an early proposed "piggyback cpu module" design for the computer module for the 7800 during development. It was the perfect fit for the new Expansion Module, so I took the drawing, and created 3D Solidworks CAD drawings from it.

 

The drawings, the STL files are then sent to a mold tooling company, they then check the drawings and make some fine adjustments and add what are called "drafts" this is 1 degree (sometime less/more) angles added onto the plastic surfaces, these allow an easier way to release the plastics from the steel tooling during the molding process.

 

Once the drafting is applied then the long and painstaking cutting begins, CNC milling is done layer by layer over the course of weeks to shave, shape and carve out the steel and create the negative cavity of the mold where the plastic will be injected into it.

 

Once this is done then inject points, hot tips, vent holes and cooling holes are added to the tool. Test samples are done and in this case, during the cooling, some "dimples" are forming, so the tooling will be adjusted to correct that, another couple of passes are made until the plastics pass.

 

Now onto chemical texturing, there are numerous SPI grades of texturing and the depth of the texture, this is a completely separate process usually done by a 3rd party, they will cause micro "pitting" on the surfaces, then blast the surface with different grades of beading, in this case the texturing will be a medium bead blast to get it to look like the original 7800 plastics.

 

A more expensive and longer process is polishing, the sides of the plastics, like on the 7800 case will be polished to be highly smooth, this is also very long and extremely expensive, but adds so a nice finishing touch to any plastic product.

 

 

I'll detail the Nameplate process shortly once I get the samples which are due very shortly, that's an interesting process in and of itself as well.

 

 

Curt

 

Looks great and thanks for keeping people updated. Anyone else find this really fascinating? How this stuff gets designed and made? I would love to see more on how this happenes. Please post more pics as the process goes along, i'm really intereted on how you do it.

[Spurge]

I'll ask the tooling maker if they could snap some shots of the actual steel tooling innards so people can see what the negative cavities look like.

 

Essentially what happens is it all starts with a drawing, in this case a March 1984 drawing done by Atari Industrial Design Tom Palecki whom I purchased the drawings from. This was an early proposed "piggyback cpu module" design for the computer module for the 7800 during development. It was the perfect fit for the new Expansion Module, so I took the drawing, and created 3D Solidworks CAD drawings from it.

 

The drawings, the STL files are then sent to a mold tooling company, they then check the drawings and make some fine adjustments and add what are called "drafts" this is 1 degree (sometime less/more) angles added onto the plastic surfaces, these allow an easier way to release the plastics from the steel tooling during the molding process.

 

Once the drafting is applied then the long and painstaking cutting begins, CNC milling is done layer by layer over the course of weeks to shave, shape and carve out the steel and create the negative cavity of the mold where the plastic will be injected into it.

 

Once this is done then inject points, hot tips, vent holes and cooling holes are added to the tool. Test samples are done and in this case, during the cooling, some "dimples" are forming, so the tooling will be adjusted to correct that, another couple of passes are made until the plastics pass.

 

Now onto chemical texturing, there are numerous SPI grades of texturing and the depth of the texture, this is a completely separate process usually done by a 3rd party, they will cause micro "pitting" on the surfaces, then blast the surface with different grades of beading, in this case the texturing will be a medium bead blast to get it to look like the original 7800 plastics.

 

A more expensive and longer process is polishing, the sides of the plastics, like on the 7800 case will be polished to be highly smooth, this is also very long and extremely expensive, but adds so a nice finishing touch to any plastic product.

 

 

I'll detail the Nameplate process shortly once I get the samples which are due very shortly, that's an interesting process in and of itself as well.

 

 

Curt

 

Looks great and thanks for keeping people updated. Anyone else find this really fascinating? How this stuff gets designed and made? I would love to see more on how this happenes. Please post more pics as the process goes along, i'm really intereted on how you do it.

 

How cool. Thanks for all that info, it would have taken a bit to type up. I find this stuff really very interesting. I have no idea how things get made really, I lived a shltered life . But i'm glad I came along to see how this all happens from scratch. I appreciate your update and also the effort going into making this. I can't wait to see more updates, thanks again.

[Albert]

The pictures look great, thanks for sharing them! It would be great to see pictures of the actual steel molds.

 

..Al

[DracIsBack]

Yep - I find this really facinating too! What a work of art!

[HammR25]

Sounds like this would have been a cool episode of How It's Made.

[The Usotsuki]

Did I read that right? Based on an actual Atari design? o.O;

[Shawn]

oh my god pics of those little plastic molds just made my day!

[Curt Vendel]

Yes,

 

This is literally resurrected directly from Atari's past, an actual proposed product design, this is like the ultimate prototype case design, except its going into production!

 

Here is what I did the Solidworks CAD files from...

 

 

Curt

 

 

 

Did I read that right? Based on an actual Atari design? o.O;

[Spurge]

Yes,

 

This is literally resurrected directly from Atari's past, an actual proposed product design, this is like the ultimate prototype case design, except its going into production!

 

Here is what I did the Solidworks CAD files from...

 

 

Curt

 

 

 

Did I read that right? Based on an actual Atari design? o.O;

 

Now that's pretty damn awesome. I'm impressed.

 

How much is this costing you? I bet this all costs a fair price. So cool.

 

Edit: ** oh wow, you're the Curt from the Atari History Museum! Lol.. only just realised. Like I said, i'm new here.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Spurge

[kskunk]

Are you using an overseas or local company to do the tooling? This is something I'd like to do myself one day. But local prices are so high, it's still a pipe dream. :/

 

- KS

[Curt Vendel]

Using a US company in Indiana, a lot of these guys are starving for business, so they came down substantially in pricing, normally this would've been a $17K tooling project.

 

I'm using a company in North Carolina for the name plates, and their pricing has been decent, I have a one time tooling charge of $1,600 and then each plate is running me about $3 each so its not that bad.

 

 

Curt

 

Are you using an overseas or local company to do the tooling? This is something I'd like to do myself one day. But local prices are so high, it's still a pipe dream. :/

 

- KS

[PAC-MAN PRIME]

Lookin' AWESOME!

[Corby]

Okay, another run was made, final adjustments to eliminate the "dimples" is being made this week and then the molds receive their texturing. Latest mold shots sent to me this morning...

 

 

 

 

 

Thats so pretty....I'm not grumpy anymore!

[+Stephen]

is that a cut out for an SIO socket on the back?

looking gooood

Eagle eyes

 

Thanks for keeping us updated on the progress. Everything is looking great so far.

[The Usotsuki]

SIO means we can have DISK DRIVES

 

All we need's a keyboard, a DOS and a ROM BASIC, and it'll be a true neovintage micro xD

 

(I'm willing to work on the DOS/ROM BASIC end...but I'll need some help because I've got reasons I can't use my usual BASIC, and I don't know the first thing about writing an OS, only some ideas how it might work.)

[PacManPlus]

Very Nice, Curt It's coming along!

[psquare75]

Yes,

 

This is literally resurrected directly from Atari's past, an actual proposed product design, this is like the ultimate prototype case design, except its going into production!

 

 

 

 

What else is he sitting on, I wonder??

[Spurge]

Yes,

 

This is literally resurrected directly from Atari's past, an actual proposed product design, this is like the ultimate prototype case design, except its going into production!

 

 

 

 

What else is he sitting on, I wonder??

 

An Atari Jaguar II MB prototype perhaps