Manufacturing pro guitar picks

[Metal Overload]

Does anyone know the procedure of doing this? i know there's some tools for doing it like the "Pick Punch" but that is like for personal use

I mean manufacturing big quantities, i'm thinking on opening a small company just to spend my free time doing custom picks for bands and selling them locally and maybe and hopefully getting bigger and start selling in other places.

Do you guys think that buying that pick punch tool and making them one by one would be a good idea for the start?

Also, does traditional printing methods will work for picks? or do they use some special tools and inks for materials like delrin, celluliod etc.? i once bought a pack of custom picks made by InTune Gp and they rocked! ink on those never vanished.

Any insight and advice on this will be appreciated.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I'm pretty sure most picks (well most that I have used) are injection molded. A small one probably wouldn't run you to much, however creating your own custom mold might be a problem.

Then I'm guessing they screen print the logos on after.

 

[Terminus]

This guy does custom picks in smaller quantities:

http://www.facebook.com/PatrickHufschmid

Might try asking him about how he does it.

 

[Clockwork]

Pretty sure Hufschmid makes all his picks by hand. But hey here is a video of him doing it!

 

[sjcortese]

I believe they are made with two different methods, die cutting and injection molding. I believe injection molding would be a very expensive way to go since you have to tool up with a mold, mold base, injection mold machine and someone that knows plastics and processing..

Some injection molded products have "runners" on them, others are made to "net" shape. Runners need to be smoothly trimmed off. It's the excess plastic that is from where the plastic enters the mold that stays attached to the product. Net shape just means its a finished product after molding, no trimming to do. There's a crap load of engineering that goes into injection molding and the process to result in a smooth, flat part.

I bet you could actually get a small table top mini router and some vacuum fixtures to hold down sheets of material and trim each pick out pretty quickly.

Die cutting may be another option but there's probably a big investment in getting the dies made, a press of some sort like hydraulic or electric presses.

 

[Metal Overload]

Thanks guys!

Well, doing them by hand one by one looks like the option to start very small, Maybe the Punch pick, screen printing and some sheets of plastic could be a good way, and i have no problem with doing it one at a time if i have good music with me hahaha,

 

[Terminus]

I used to make them the same way as Patrick does but I used washers from a hardware store since they have the hole in them and it worked well for grip. I used a Jazz III as the template, just drew the shape out and then ground the washer down, then sanded it off and used light steel wool to polish them. Made about 30 of them and gave them out to friends in bands. Most of them didn't like the metal sound which I why I stopped messing with it, too scratchy on the pick attack even after a mighty polishing.

 

[heshian46]

Either die cut or injection mold as sjcortese said. Deburr the edges via a "tumble-deburr" type machine for mass quantities, or by hand to achieve the desired edge. There are also more costly ways to do it via automation. Print logo by screen, ink-jet, laser, etc.

A better idea for a startup would be to bypass the costly machinery investment and outsource the actual punching/molding. So you would just have to design the molds or dies and then find a company to do the manufacturing for you. All the semi-finishing work could be done in your bedroom if you wanted. You dont need lot of space to edge finish and screen print.

My day job is as a manufacturing engineer.