Small Injection Molding Machine: Morgan Press

My machinist friend dropped me a line about having just acquired a second-hand Morgan Press from eBay, which he managed to get up and running. I wasn't previously familiar with this type of machine, so I did some research. It struck me that for the committed DIY enthusiast or the creative "maker" operating out of a small shop, this would be an incredible piece of machinery to own! Visualize a smaller, table-top, injection molding machine that posses hefty, industrial-grade automation. Here's a look at my friend's new machine:

Here is a YouTube video that shows a number of machines from a TechShop, including a Morgan Press:

The little plastic parts box that comes out of the Morgan Press looks great.

These machines are designed to make it easy to prototype injection molded parts, test molds, and even do small production runs.  It sure looks a lot more robust than the typical benchtop injection molding machines I had been seeing:

Small Injection Molding Machine from Galomb...

A brand new machine like the Galomb is circa $1500-1800.  Not cheap.  These machines are somewhat specialized.  Not clear where hobby injection molding originated, but there are definitely also articles out there about building these machines.

You'll need a CNC machine to make the molds.  Of course, a newer trend is to use a 3D printer to directly extrude plastic without need for a mold.  3D printing is a much slower process, but for the price of the simple benchtop molding machine, you can get a complete 3D printer and produce parts without stopping to make molds.