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Discmania splits with Innova

I heard secondhand from a long time Innova team member that Discmania didn't sign on at previous levels (last year) and other companies took their production spots (Infinite for example).

Makes sense given that DM had put so much into molding with other manufacturers.
 
Remember when people swore up and down that Rico bought an old Roc mold from Innova and released the Ghost?

8x mold i believe
That's my favorite "proof that we have no idea what is going on here" rumor. Just the idea that there was an 8X KC Roc mold, and it was just sitting around and Innova never used it again after the 8X run of KC Rocs is mind boggling.
 
That's my favorite "proof that we have no idea what is going on here" rumor. Just the idea that there was an 8X KC Roc mold, and it was just sitting around and Innova never used it again after the 8X run of KC Rocs is mind boggling.

And knowing what injection molds cost to build, I find it incredibly unlikely that they had one new special mold made for a run of discs, and then retired it immediately afterwards. Seems incredibly unlikely.
 
And knowing what injection molds cost to build, I find it incredibly unlikely that they had one new special mold made for a run of discs, and then retired it immediately afterwards. Seems incredibly unlikely.

What would something like this cost nowadays? (assuming they have all the machines needed, just the price of the mold)
 
What would something like this cost nowadays? (assuming they have all the machines needed, just the price of the mold)

Depends on how they configured it, but a conservative guess is north of $14k. Probably more in today's market with tool steel prices sky high and availability a crapshoot.
 
That's my favorite "proof that we have no idea what is going on here" rumor. Just the idea that there was an 8X KC Roc mold, and it was just sitting around and Innova never used it again after the 8X run of KC Rocs is mind boggling.

that was the joke
 
Depends on how they configured it, but a conservative guess is north of $14k. Probably more in today's market with tool steel prices sky high and availability a crapshoot.

A friend of mine does tooling for molds (smaller than a disc by far) and he said no one could do a steel one for less than 10k for something this size, and 20k would be pretty standard coming from a big company. Maybe an aluminum one for less, but he said those only last for a few thousand shots.

(Disclaimer; I have no knowledge of the process other than what my friend has said)
 
A friend of mine does tooling for molds (smaller than a disc by far) and he said no one could do a steel one for less than 10k for something this size, and 20k would be pretty standard coming from a big company. Maybe an aluminum one for less, but he said those only last for a few thousand shots.

(Disclaimer; I have no knowledge of the process other than what my friend has said)

When this discussion has come up before the number $20k for the mold pieces seems to come up pretty frequently.
 
When this discussion has come up before the number $20k for the mold pieces seems to come up pretty frequently.

I'm confused as heck here.

Trash Panda has had multiple injection molds made, I think 4 total before he worked out all of his design spec mistakes, for his DIY disc making project. They were in the range of hundreds of dollars to make. I realize there is always a difference between a truly industrial quality build and DIY build, but 20 to 40 times the price? What exactly is making a single mold so expensive?
 
My guess is Jussi exits dg, ventures into cryptocurrency and announces initial coin offering. a nEw eRA BEGIns
 
The Exodus is not the FD mold, it is the Eagle-L mold

Yep, they are identical in comparison, as for the FD, if Infinite wanted to move a few thousand units overnight, have Innova mold up the old FD, call it whatever ancient Egyptian name the pick out of a hat and put them up for sale, probably when there's a lull in other new releases. They'd need not make mention of what mold it is, between here, reddit and facebook that would be made general knowledge in less than 24 hours.
 
I'm confused as heck here.

Trash Panda has had multiple injection molds made, I think 4 total before he worked out all of his design spec mistakes, for his DIY disc making project. They were in the range of hundreds of dollars to make. I realize there is always a difference between a truly industrial quality build and DIY build, but 20 to 40 times the price? What exactly is making a single mold so expensive?

Honestly, I'd believe a couple thousand dollars over 10-20k. I don't have experience in injection molding, but I buy tooling at my job for continuous extrusion. It all depends on the machine shop and where you're shopping. Disc molds are also pretty simple, relatively speaking, so the buddy could be quoting something a lot more complex than that.
 
I'm confused as heck here.

Trash Panda has had multiple injection molds made, I think 4 total before he worked out all of his design spec mistakes, for his DIY disc making project. They were in the range of hundreds of dollars to make. I realize there is always a difference between a truly industrial quality build and DIY build, but 20 to 40 times the price? What exactly is making a single mold so expensive?

Honestly, I'd believe a couple thousand dollars over 10-20k. I don't have experience in injection molding, but I buy tooling at my job for continuous extrusion. It all depends on the machine shop and where you're shopping. Disc molds are also pretty simple, relatively speaking, so the buddy could be quoting something a lot more complex than that.
I know nothing about this, which isn't going to stop me from speculating...

When QuestAT jumped into disc golf, Gateway briefly partnered with them and QuestAT ended up molding a couple of drivers for them. What I was told was that QuestAT was using cheap aluminum molds that cost a fraction of what the molds the other companies used, but they were going to have to replace these molds frequently because the aluminum wouldn't stand up to the heat and were going to quickly wear out.

That info seemed to play out. QuestAT never had a Champion-type plastic and I was told that was because the molds they used couldn't withstand it. The Inferno after a very short time was a different mold as it seems the original mold wore out. QuestAT was able to get into disc golf and have a variety of discs quickly, but in short order they were looking a replacing a lot of equipment.

So I'm thinking you CAN create a mold a lot more cheaply than say Innova or Discraft is going to spend. If you are going to do a very low-volume business, it's prolly the way to go. If you are Discmania and expecting to move significant amounts of product, it would be a short-sighted move.
 
*further speculating on Three Putt's speculation*

...especially if the cheaper, aluminum molds can't withstand the heat required for premium plastics.
 
Yeah, you're going to get into heat treating, which makes the molds stronger and able to stand up longer, but that also ups the $$$ invested because it's another process for the mold AND heat treating itself is expensive and I think requires higher quality steel. I'll have to ask our machine shop guy next time I see him and see what he thinks.
 
My guess is Jussi exits dg, ventures into cryptocurrency and announces initial coin offering. a nEw eRA BEGIns

Discoin is the new thing, laxer eyes for everyone.
 

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