8 months by cncdivi
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.
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Bob is responsible for the development and implementation of the popular G-Wizard CNC Software. Bob is also the founder of CNCCookbook, the largest CNC-related blog on the Internet.
This is nice place to share the view with each other. Keep the flow going on.
I have 2 Morgan Industries G-55T Injection Molding Machines and accessories for sale. We took these out of service around 2007 and kept them thinking we would go back to molding connectors on custom cable assemblies. If anyone is interested, lets have some dialogue and see where it goes.
I am looking for a couple of Morgans. Are these still available.
Please let me know by ph 651-786-9700 or email
sales@glaciermachinery.com
many thanks, Marv
I realize that this is resurrecting an old thread but if you still have any morgan machines for sale I am interested in having that dialogue.
Hi. My name is Ritchie Manning and I am the owner of “Manning Innovations”. We have our own line of new benchtop injection molding machines similar to the Morgan machines and we also rebuild all types of used benchtop machines and put them in perfect working order. We are benchtop injection molding experts.
I have several new, lightly used and rebuilt machines currently for sale including the ones shown in the pics above. We can also make custom molds that work perfectly with our machines. Feel free to contact me with any questions. (731) 697-5189.
Hi Ritchie,
You might want to call John Vogt, at Martella, a company in New Jersey.
He’s looking for a used Morgan G-100T. I would think he’d want the version with at least the Watlow 985 controllers, nothing earlier, but you can touch base with him.
Take care,
Dave
Thanks Dave! He called me today.
Ritchie
We are currently running a 3 plated mold with a stripper plate in the middle. When we try to run the mold in fully auto the hole mold falls apart. When the parts are run in manually the mold will run and produce parts fine. Any idea as to what is going on?
I believe current injection molding methods are more environment friendly as compared to earlier methods, because of efficient machinery and durable thermosetting polymers capable of withstanding abuse, and extreme temperatures. Thanks for sharing keep it up
Simplomatic Mfg Co. was ahead of their time an d offered 3 different small molding machines in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. They had a forth that never made it to market, but is a very nice machine for production insert molding. They use six to this day.
Many of the current ones available are very similar. The Simplomatic patent is long expired.
For some reason when the founder passed away, the family decided to focus on stamping, molding, and tool and die work. They only sell parts for a couple of the machines to a couple companies that have completely unmodified machines.
They dealt with some frivolous lawsuits and abandoned the machines.
Too bad for me because up until a year ago, my mother was still 1/3 owner. (My cousin now owns 100%)
I wish Grandpa Pete wouldn’t have died so young, as the machine business had a lot of potential and I’d probably be sitting on some trust fund.
I worked at Simplomatic for 6-7 years after tool and die school and ran the molding Dept, and helped out in the tool room.
We ran a bunch of our own machines. I’ve built a few from scratch and repaired a lot.
Some of the top selling bench top molding machines now, are almost identical. They would probably be even better with our original barrel design.
We considered modernization, but I left the company before we got serious. I was born and raised in La Crosse and Chicago wasn’t for me.
Depending on application, if you can find a PLA-63 or Hydro in good shape, they work great. With a background in machining and mechanical skills, parts are easy.
I sometimes ponder approaching one of the current machine makers with my knowledge. I still haven’t seen an inexpensive insert machine that comes close to what we ran. Maybe my knowledge is worth something?
The trick to these is a barrel system, the rest is easy. After leaving Simplomatic, I worked at different shops as a tool and die maker. I also built proprietary machinery. I could build one with basic Fab shop equipment, a Bridgeport, and a lathe.
I see the cheaper pre made hand operated one run 1500ish. For that a shop smart guy can build a semi-auto, fully pnuematic one.
For engineering grade materials and scientific injection molding techniques, a plunger machine may not cut it. If you need different heat zones, fill, pack, and hold, fill speed,etc, you’d need a screw style machine, which are way different/more expensive.