I'm looking at designing a standard capacity (30rd) Beowulf magazine. I' located in Southeast Michigan and was wondering if anyone knew of a good injection molding facility in my area to go to with my design and to create a prototype. if this is the wrong forum I apologize.

I have ZERO experience in that area but maybe a 3d printer for the design stage?

You want a prototyping firm.  They'll draw it up in AutoCAD or ProEngineer, then 3D print it.

When you get the final design, THAT'S when you go to the molding company.

Beware, all that stuff is EXPENSIVE.  Molds are SUPER expensive.  A good buddy of mine does prototyping for a living in North Carolina, IM me if you want a referral.

There was a thread on here some time ago from one of the mag makers discussing new mags and the costs were in the tens of thousands of dollars for EACH mold... And there was several molds made to adjust and tweak the design...

The costs are going to be prohibative unless you have something truly innovating and new, along with the financial backers to bring it to production.

I agree. It could work if you could sell thousands of them, but for a few or even a few hundred it's probably far too expensive. I knew a guy who owned an injection molding company. Based on what he showed me I'd estimate a mold for a p-mag would cost at least $20,000. Probably more.

Came here to post the things about IM prototyping and molds others already posted. So, Ditto most of the above posts.

Why come we all crushing Irish's hopes and dreams?  

But yes as everyone else has stated unless you are very wealthy or have some very wealthy backers you are going to need 6 figures + to even get to the final production stages for such a mag.

Maybe if it is something that isn't stepping on the feet of other companies patents you might be able to sell off your idea to an established company in the industry.

Only a few years ago people were posting things like:" Why would we need any more companies making polymer magazines?"

.50 cal, 30 rd mag would weigh more than I would want to carry

I use 20rd mags for 300 blk subs for this very reason.

Ok, I worked in prototyping and manufacturing for a while, doing molds and first run parts through to full manufacturing. Basically, if you want to build these, your best bet is to design and 3d print a prototype for fit test only. 3d parts are cheap now, you could have a couple made by redeye or something for probably under $200. For a mold, the total price is usually quoted off a combination of block size and material removed. For a single mag size, you should be able to have the mold designed and machined for less than $10,000 if you shop around. This is providing that you already have your mag designed and 3d modeled. You need modeling, double it. After that, you need to find an injection molding company. They will have to dick around with the mold, get it set up, etc. Probably charge you a few bucks per magazine. A single magazine mold will take a while for them because depending on the plastic, the part may have to sit in the mold for a minute to cool and not warp.

Your best bet is finding a plastics house and finding companies they have dealt with. As you make a couple parts, the mold mfg will usually have to make minor changes. End cost will likely run you 12k or more and 5-10$ per pour. If you make 300 mags, and charge 50 per, you MIGHT, if everything goes crazy good, make a few hundred bucks on your 12k investment. Experience and good people can help you make more.

Mr. Larue is undoubtedly very experienced and in a great location for this type of enterprise. Austin has tons of machine shops and casting houses. If he thinks it's a bad investment, it probably is. Your best bet is to probably 3d model it, make a couple of low quality magazines, then spend a bit more and have some high definition 3d models made that will be usable (high strength polymers are starting to be an option). You would also need to find a spring mfg to wind those for you.

I worked for a company in the SE MI area hat manufactured injection molds and like some of the post indicated above the cost to produce a mold would be very expensive and the time and man-hours involved in tweaking a mold to get all features correct would be a very expensive option You could be talking months of labor if everything worked out perfect and then there is the press needed to insert the completed mold and trying to figure out the appropriate material to use to make the mags. Finally your looking at a fairly large piece of steel appropriate for the mold, machining time, to produce each side of the mold and its individual components to create the finished mold. A very expensive investment without a good financial backer.

I grew up around injection molding.  Like others have said, it wont be cheap to build a mold.  Ive been out of it for a few years, so the 60k estimate from the magpul guys doesnt surprise me.

3D printing is your best option.

So, I am noticing that all of these are assuming that the OP is starting from scratch, but in a practical sense, do we really need to reinvent the wheel?  When I decided I wanted a 30 round .458SOCOM mag, I didn't start from scratch, I started with a standard 40 round Pmag and worked on it with a file until it functioned 100%.  I know Beo is a bit of a different animal, but how about starting with whatever polymer mag is closest to what you need and seeing if there is a way to modify it to be perfect, and then look at if those modifications can be done during production or if it needs to be post-production or even by hand one off...

I've worked in the polymer injection industry for a while.. I can tell you the price for a basic mould can reach 15-20k euro easily.. A more complex one with moving parts necessary to produce a magazine can cost up to 100k

Based on my experience as an engineer, expect to pay $50k for the molds. Definitely finalize the design using 3D printing before investing in molds.