Hi I’m the new guy here!  (See http://www.talkcomposites.com/21718/I%E2%80%99m-the-new-guy-from-Oregon-USA)

I want to produce a mold that will allow me to have finished molded surfaces both inside and out on the component I'm producing, which will have a high degree of structural definition both sides.

From some videos I’ve seen it appears I need to make a closed mold for vacuum infusion, which may require the mold to split lengthwise and again on both ends with this particular part.

The exposed outer surface of the finished part needs to be a cosmetically perfect twill weave pattern and the only way I can figure out how to orient the fiber do this is pre preg on the 1^st layer.

The subsequent layers don’t need the cosmetics, so do they need to be pre preg, or can they be vacuum infused with wet resin in the same mold then baked in the autoclave?

Zebra...thanks for the quick response!  Having no clue what I'm doing, a lot of what I'm hearing hear could just as well be in Chinese and I think I'm asking too broad of a question, so I'm going to try and be more specific.

Can you explain compression molding, as well as what carbon fiber sheet molding compound is, and how I should approach the mold design?