Hi guys,

I am almost finished with my pattern and I have ordered materials for high temperature mould that will be used for pre preg. I cannot find some answers so I hope you can help me.

First thing is, since I still don't have oven and won't finish it in next 1 or 1 and a half month, can I make mould and post cure it when I finish oven, or I need to post cure it as soon as possible?

My plan was to brush approx. 1mm of gelcoat, brush some resin afterwards and add chopped carbon on sharp angles and reinforce everything with 12 layers of 200g black stuff twill. In total, mould should have thickness around 4-5mm for each part of mould. Is that enough? I am not comfortable using thicker fabrics due to complexity of pattern.

Also, is it maybe possible to "level" some curves with mix of high temp epoxy and milled carbon fiber and pour it as next layer after gelcoat and before fabric? That would greatly reduce amount of work needed for laying fabric reinforcements.

I understand. I guess I will try and "bake" it up to 50°C and hope for the best.

CNC routing where I live is quite expensive for a student budget so I am trying to do everything from first try. I will try to find and order small rollers, if not, I will go with casting resin into those grooves. I wouldn't cast everything, just those grooves that are approx. 75cm long, 1cm wide and 0.5cm deep on lowest part of groove. 

Do you think that there would be really much difference in heating rates so to speak, in carbon fabric + epoxy and mixture of epoxy + milled (and maybe fine chopped) carbon fiber?