[davei]

Yes, Dave, more specifically, how is the prototype mold made? Is it "hard" or "soft" tooling? As someone who does Product Development for a living, I have always been curious about that.

Is there, in fact, a protoype or "soft" mold/tooling at all? Do you perhaps shell out for a mold based upon computer modeling alone, then make changes to the mold in-house, "on the fly"? Is the whole tooling/mold making process done in-house (that would be pretty cool, but probably expensive to maintain), or do you specify the mold to be made elsewhere? I'm guessing you maybe use a tool maker in the Rancho Cucamonga area, based upon the rapid development of new discs you seem to accomplish. But I know molds of this size are fairly expensive, so you must have some way to minimize the risk in the development process.

Any info you're willing to give would be interesting. Thanks.

-Eric K

We do cad/cam hard tooling only out of house. It is risky and expensive. It is fairly fast (about 5 or 6 weeks total) because of the people we work with. A soft tooling would only be a little cheaper.