After I have infused a part, and clamped both the resin and vacuum side. How long do I have to wait before beginning the post-curing phase? I know most people say "overnight" but I would like to know an actual time.
Today I wanted to test that. I thought I would combine the "regular" cure time, with the higher-temperature post-cure. I clamped both sides, and turned on my infrared heating lamp which got the part to, I'm guessing, around 60 degrees Celsius (I need to buy an infrared thermometer to verify this). I left it for 6.5 hours, let it cool for .5 hours and de-moulded. It was completely hard, clear, and shows no sign of distortion in any way, but I am afraid that I may have altered its structural properties by not following a typical cure cycle (i.e. let cure at ambient temperature overnight, followed by 8 hour elevated temperature cure).
I guess what I am looking for is how all of you deal with your curing cycle, in hopes that we can come up with a relatively structured way to cure parts. I know it will change from job to job, but it would be better to have more solid information, instead of the classic "overnight" cure, and "guessing the temperature of your heating lamp without a thermometer...oops...
-Mike-