I finally got a real lesson on gating from a mold maker who's been doing it 40 years

Old timer at the shop named Mike showed me why my thin gates were causing inclusions. He walked me through feeding the cavity from the thickest section first, and my reject rate dropped about 30 percent on the first run. Has anyone else had a senior guy change how you think about something basic like gate placement?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_hannah17d ago

Respectfully disagree with the whole "old timer knows best" thing. 40 years in the same shop doesn't mean they've kept up with new materials or flow analysis software. Bet Mike's tricks work great on the 1980s steel he learned on, but modern polymers and thin wall designs change everything. Blindly copying what a senior guy does can lock you into old solutions that miss better options. Saw a shop waste months chasing a 40 year veteran's "proven method" when a $50 software simulation showed a totally different gate location would have fixed the inclusions faster. Experience isn't always right, sometimes it's just repetition of mistakes.

baker.simon18d ago

That's how it always goes with the real old school guys, they see stuff the rest of us miss because they actually understand the physics behind the mold, not just the buttons to push.