CHOCOLATE MOLD
If there is anything missing from this PowerPoint beyond
what is acknowledged, please tell Grant Dunbar. Thanks!!!
Designing an object to mold in Inventor


Must fit within two 2”x2”x3” butter board blocks.
Must be able to be milled (yes, it is possible to design something that can’t be
milled). Ex. Don’t make something that is small in the middle and gets bigger going
out from where the joint in the mold will be!

Remember: A bit on the mill may not be able to get into a tiny detail on the model!

Remember: The chocolate has to be able to get out of the mold!

Be creative! 
Designing the mold in Inventor
•
Center 3 differently
oriented (xy, yz, xz)
planes on the model
of the object the
chocolate is going
to be molded into.
Designing the mold in Inventor

Make a 2”x3”x4”
rectangular prism, set
it to a clear blue
(fine… you can have
another color if you
want) and save it as a
part.
Designing the mold in Inventor

Open a new assembly file, and place the block and
the object to be molded in the frame. It doesn’t
matter where, as you’ll constrain them together in a
sec…
Designing the mold in Inventor



Offset mate the 3 differently
oriented planes on the object with 3
differently oriented sides on Inventor
so that the object to be molded is
centered within the block.
The object must be centered on the
long dimension (2in from one side
and 2in from the other), because that
is where the actual mold will be:
right in between the two butter
board blocks. Always keep in mind
where the two blocks are joined!
Save the assembly file.
Designing the mold in Inventor

Open a new part file.

Exit sketch mode.




On the top menu bar, click on
“manage.”
Click on “Derive Component” in this
menu.
Open your assembly file.
There will be a list of the two parts
in the file. Click on the “+” next to
the object (the one that is not the
block!) to change it to a “-”. This will
make it so that where your object
was before, there is now a cavity in
the block.
Designing the mold in Inventor

Open a sketch on the
plane that is aligned
with the front face of
the block (like in the
picture, so that there is
2in of block ahead
and 2in behind).
Designing the mold in Inventor



On this new sketch, create two circles, about
3/8in or 1/2in in diameter.
The circles should not be in the mold cavity;
these are going to become the alignment holes!
Extrude cut these circles in both directions
(forward and backward). Enter 1in in the
distance box. See the screenshot below for
what to do:
Designing the mold in Inventor


Create a countersunk hole that
intersects the mold cavity and can be
milled, so that chocolate can get into
the mold. The holes diameter should
be around 3/8” or ½”.
Create another, smaller air hole so
that air can get out of the mold as
the chocolate can flow in. It’s okay if
this hole is only about 1/8” in
diameter. Make sure it can be milled!
Designing the mold in Inventor (Almost to
Edgecam!!!)

Save your part!!!

Click on “split” in the “model” menu.


Click on the button in the split menu that
says “trim solid”.
Click on the plane that is parallel to the
front face.

Click ok.

Save as a different part!

Click undo.



Redo the split except click the other
button in the remove box this time so that
the other half is trimmed now.
Save as a different part from the other
two!
Make sure in these two new parts all
sketch planes are not visible, and save
them that way.
Ok, got some instructions up! Hope they help!
ON TO EDGECAM!!!
Edgecam



Open Edgecam
Open one of the two
mold halves you made
in Inventor.
You can click on
“rendering” to change
the appearance of the
model to a solid rather
than wireframe.
Edgecam









Go to the “Geometry” drop down menu and
select “Create CPL”.
In the “Name” box put whatever name you
want for your new origin point.
In the “Plane” box, click on the arrow on the
right side of the box and select “Through 3
points”.
Select the bottom left corner of the face that
will be milled, then the bottom right corner, and
finally the top left corner.
A new origin point should be on the bottom left
corner of the face to be milled.
The red axis of the CPL should point right,
down the long side of the face to be milled.
The green axis of the CPL should point up,
down the short side of the face to be milled.
The blue axis should point up, towards you, the
viewer.
If the axis’ are oriented wrong, Ctrl-Z the
action and repeat the instructions on this slide
EXACTLY.
Edgecam




Click “Switch to manufacture mode”.
The “Machining Sequence” menu will
pop up. In the “Sequence name” box,
put in whatever name you want.
In the “Machine Tool” box, click on
the arrow and select “Prolight
1000”.
Click ok.
Edgecam

Click on “Roughing operation”.

Left click once and right click twice on the block.

This will open the “Roughing operation” menu.







In the “Mill Type” box, click on the arrow and
select “Optimised”.
Set “% Stepover” to “50”.
Click on the “tooling” tab at the top of the
menu.
In the “diameter” box enter “25.4*x”, where x
is the diameter of the bit that you want to use,
in inches. Since this is a roughing operation, you
will want to use something along the lines of a
3/8” bit.
In the “Corner radius” box, enter “25.4*x”,
where x is half the diameter of the mill. That is
for a ball mill; if you want to use an end mill,
then enter 0.
Click “ok”.
Click through the resulting warning/error
messages, if any.
Edgecam

Click on “Parallel lace operation”.

Click left once and right twice on the block.

In the “Mill type” box, click on the arrow and select
“Optimised”.

In the “% Stepover” box, enter “50”.

In the “Angle” box, enter “45”.

Click on the “Tooling” tab at the top of the menu.





In the “diameter” box enter “25.4*x”, where x is the
diameter of the bit that you want to use, in inches. Since
this is a finer milling operation, you will want to use
something along the lines of a 1/8” bit.
In the “Corner radius” box, enter “25.4*x”, where x is
half the diameter of the mill. That is for a ball mill; if
you want to use an end mill, then enter 0.
Click “ok”.
Click through the resulting warning/error messages, if
any.
Do all the instructions on this slide again, except in the
“Angle” box, put in -45 instead of 45.
Edgecam




Click on “file” at the top menu bar.
Click on “Generate code” in the
drop down menu.
In the “job name” box, put in
whatever name you want your code
to be called.
Repeat slides 12-18 for the other
half of the mold!
Edgecam

Put both code files onto a
flash drive.
MILLING
This section is a work in progress…
Milling





Get two butter board blocks.
Put one of the butter board blocks in
the vise on the mill.
Open one of your programs you
generated in Edgecam into the
milling software.
Put in the bit you are going to use
for your roughing operation.
Move the machine so that the bit is
directly over (and just barely not
contacting!) what was the origin point
on the Edgecam model.

Zero the coordinates.

Start the program!
Milling

After a couple of hundred lines of code, the mill will stop and prompt you to change the bit.

Change the bit to what you will be using for the rest of the milling process.



Note what line of code you are on! Keep in mind that Edgecam lines are in increments of 2!
So program line 342 = line 171!
Stop the program
Lower the head with the new bit in it back down so that the end of the bit is just above the
block and zero the coordinates for ONLY THE Z-AXIS!!!

Start the program again at the line that you previously noted.

Keep milling!


Repeat this process (slides 19-20) with the other butter board block and the other program
that you generated in Edgecam.
There you go! You now have a chocolate
mold! Now all you have to do is mold some
chocolate!