Jack,

we are definitely concerned about print through. We let the mould cure for a week before we added the framing. The framing is spaced off the mould about 1/8 inch with polyurethane adhesive, and the large radius fillets of chopped strand were added to spread the contact area of each frame to approximately 1.5 inch wide.

We may eventually try vacuum bagging as well. We have been experimenting with small trial panels, and have had good success. Unfortunately we don't have an autoclave for baking the mould. I have heard of people using industrial heating blankets to post cure the layup though, so we are looking into it.

Simon

: Simon,

: You will want to be carefull of print through where your cradles touch the
: mold. This can be polished out but when I build a mold we only attach
: stiffeners to the flange area to prevent this.

: Our process is important to us because we vacuum bag our parts at 30hg and
: bake them under pressure. This puts a lot of stress on the mold that can
: print through supports to the parts.