Hoofty, thanks for the reminder. I wasn't planning on shocking the parts, was just commenting on power. I will ramp up/down the temp at a much more reasonable rate, such as what you suggested. I wasn't aware I had to go as slow as 5F/min, so that is nice to know. Better safe than sorry, eh? My epoxy suggest a very high post cure temp, close to 200F for two hours. I called the reseller and they said 150F at 4 hours is almost as good, so I figured if I split the diff, say 170F at 3 hours, I'd be close to spec and after all, this isn't a people carrying plane, so I have some fudge factor. My initial concern was I wouldn't hit a high temp in the new oven. My previous oven, much smaller, only would reach about 140F. I had to guess "seat of the pants" on how much power I needed on the larger oven to obtain 170F. I think I guessed pretty close. I also took care to be sure the IR is indirect, so no hot spots. Heat exchange is done via forced air that blows thru the IR setup. Any other tips you might have, I'm all ears.

Troy, not sure if you are asking about the plug, the molds, or the final part. First, consider I am very new to parts this large too. I’m using all epoxy resins, with the only exception is polyester resins for filler when I made the plug. I finished the plug with one layer of 8oz glass, then applied urethane automotive primer for the finish. Haven't started the molds, only test samples. What I plan, based on my tests, is wax only for release (8 coats), then a epoxy tooling coat, then one layer of 10oz glass, probably 5 or more layers of heavy glass mat (random fiber), then one layer of 10oz glass to finish. Done this before, worked fine, get a decent mold thickness and stiffness. Not sure yet what I'm going to do for part schedule. Probably prime or paint in the mold, then 3.5oz crows foot with a foam sandwich on the fuse sides. Don't know if that will be stiff enough or not, but should know after the first part.