SALTGATOR: The 1st Desktop SoftGel Injection Molding Machine
- Jul 25, 2025
- 3 min read
Rapid Soft Part Making | 10-Minute Ready | 3D-Printing Mold Support | For DIYers & Designers
For every hobbyist, designer, angler, or DIY enthusiast out there who has ever dreamed of bringing their intricate soft-part designs to life, or even just recycling and customizing their own fishing lures, the wait is finally over. SALTGATOR, now live on Kickstarter, introduces the world's first Desktop Softgel Injection Molding Machine, promising to revolutionize how you create. Imagine the freedom to design, prototype, and produce custom soft components, baits, or unique crafts right from your workbench, with unprecedented speed, ease, and sustainability. This isn't just a machine, it's a gateway to endless creative possibilities, making advanced manufacturing accessible and putting the power of personalized creation directly into your hands.
Project Overview
Name and Creator: SALTGATOR: The 1st Desktop Softgel Injection Molding Machine by Saltgator.
What It Is: The SALTGATOR is a compact, all-in-one desktop machine designed to simplify the creation of soft plastic parts through injection molding. It integrates heating, stirring, and injection capabilities into a single, user-friendly unit, making professional-grade soft molding accessible for hobbyists, designers, and creators, allowing them to produce custom components quickly and efficiently.
Key Features
Rapid Soft Part Production: Transform your designs into tangible soft parts in as little as 10 minutes. This rapid prototyping and production capability significantly speeds up the creative process, allowing for quick iterations and immediate gratification.
3D-Printed Mold Compatibility: The SALTGATOR seamlessly integrates with 3D-printed molds, offering unparalleled flexibility in design. This feature empowers users to create highly customized and intricate shapes limited only by their imagination and 3D modeling skills.
Compact All-in-One Design: Experience full-scale soft molding power without the bulk. The SALTGATOR is designed to fit comfortably on any desktop, packing all necessary functions—heating, stirring, and injecting—into a single, elegant unit, eliminating the need for cumbersome external equipment.
User-Friendly & Safety-First: Engineered for everyday creators, the machine boasts an intuitive and fast operating process. Safety is paramount, with a fully sealed construction and the use of eco-safe soft plastic formulas to prevent harmful fumes and minimize the risk of burns.
Comprehensive Getting Started Support: Jump right into creation with ease. The campaign offers a preset mold library and a series of clear, easy-to-follow video guides, ensuring that even beginners can achieve professional results from their very first use.
Sustainable Recycling Capabilities: A standout feature, the SALTGATOR allows users to reheat and reuse leftover or discarded soft plastic material. This promotes sustainability by significantly reducing waste and maximizing material efficiency, aligning with eco-conscious crafting practices.
Rewards
Super Early Bird | 1 X SALTGATOR (Starts at $229 USD)
Includes: One (1) SALTGATOR Desktop Softgel Injection Molding Machine, eight (8) essential accessories/items to get started, and all applicable stretch goals. (Offers a significant discount, e.g., over $160 off the estimated retail price).
Super Early Bird | 2 X SALTGATOR ($429 USD)
Super Early Bird | 5 X SALTGATOR ($1,049 USD)
There are other rewards, but these represent the best savings
The Idea
Concept: The core concept behind SALTGATOR is to democratize soft plastic injection molding, making it accessible, affordable, and safe for anyone to create custom soft parts right from their home or workshop. The creators aim to empower a new generation of DIYers, artists, and specialized hobbyists (like anglers) by providing a tool that fosters creativity, reduces waste through recycling, and simplifies a previously complex manufacturing process.
Inspiration: The SALTGATOR's journey began with a simple frustration shared by a group of passionate hobby anglers and engineers in Texas and Hong Kong: the excessive waste generated from broken soft plastic fishing baits. Dissatisfied with existing recycling and molding solutions that were often expensive, cumbersome, unsafe, or limited in material compatibility, they decided to engineer their own. Their inspiration was to create a solution that was not only easy to use and powerful but also environmentally conscious by enabling the recycling of old baits. The name "SALTGATOR" symbolizes the machine's versatility in both saltwater and freshwater applications, reflecting the team's resilience and commitment to their vision of making custom bait-making simple, personal, and sustainable.
