Inside Our Tooling Workshop: Why FDGM Keeps Mold Development In-House

Most garden-tool brands buy their molds from a third party, ship to a contract assembler, and watch the tooling life shrink while their lead time grows. We took the other route — every plastic, die-cast and stamped part for our hedge trimmers and pole pruners is tooled in-house.

Why we kept tooling in-house

Three reasons we hear from B2B partners every quarter:

• IP control: Your custom housing geometry stays inside one factory. No mold being "borrowed" on a competing line.
• Lead-time compression: T1 sample in 4–6 weeks, not the 12–14 weeks typical of arms-length tooling.
• Tooling cost transparency: You see the actual mold quote, not a marked-up service contract.

What we tool

Plastic injection molds (up to 800-tonne press), aluminium die-cast (gear housings), zinc die-cast (small precision parts), stamped steel (blades, brackets) and a small CNC bay for prototyping. Mold lives are quoted at 500K shots minimum; our active tooling on the 18V cordless mower platform is past 1.4M shots.

DFM that actually catches problems

Every OEM brief gets a DFM (Design for Manufacturing) review before the quote is locked. Common saves we make:

• Wall thickness adjustments that prevent sink marks
• Draft angle fixes on housings that would otherwise stick in the mold
• Material substitutions when a customer specs an over-engineered polymer
• Parting-line repositioning to hide visible flash

This is the work that keeps your COGS predictable and your retail returns low.

Working with our tooling team

If you have an existing CAD model and want a feasibility quote, send it via the contact form with NDA scope marked. 5–7 working days for a complete tooling proposal.