Totally agree about injection molding being impractical for smaller DIY projects—been there myself. The upfront tooling costs alone can be a real dealbreaker unless you're planning to churn out hundreds of identical pieces. Resin casting, especially with UV-resistant stuff, is definitely the smarter route for custom fixtures. Learned that lesson the hard way after my outdoor handles turned a weird yellowish shade within months...not exactly the look I was going for. Spending a bit more upfront saves headaches down the road.
Good points all around. Resin casting definitely has its advantages for smaller runs. Though, from my experience, even UV-resistant resins can fade eventually if they're exposed to strong sunlight constantly. Learned that after my client's custom outdoor knobs slowly lost their color—lesson learned, shade matters!
Definitely experienced something similar with resin fading outdoors. A client wanted custom resin-cast house numbers—they looked fantastic initially, but after about a year in direct sun, they started to lose their vibrancy. Switched to injection molding with UV-stabilized plastics for the next job, and the difference was noticeable. So yeah, resin casting is great for smaller batches indoors, but for outdoor durability, injection molding might be worth the extra setup hassle and cost.
"after about a year in direct sun, they started to lose their vibrancy."
Had a similar experience myself. Built this gorgeous outdoor bar area for a client, and we decided to go with resin-cast decorative panels—looked amazing at first, but after one summer, the colors faded pretty noticeably. Ended up swapping them out for injection-molded UV-resistant panels, and they've held up beautifully since. Resin's awesome indoors or shaded spots, but outdoors...lesson learned the hard way, haha.
Injection molding's definitely the better bet for outdoor durability, but there's a few things you can do to improve resin-cast panels if you're set on using them. First, adding a UV stabilizer to your resin mix helps a lot—doesn't solve everything, but extends the lifespan significantly. Second, a clear UV-resistant coating on top after curing can buy you some extra time. Still, for long-term outdoor use, injection molding usually wins out in my experience.
