just finished my first mold,came out superbly thanks to all the help on here 
ive read that you should leave the mold a few weeks before using it,is this really the case??? i used a poly based tooling resin if that makes any difference.
Heck no. As long as it cured, go to town. But really use lots of mold releases and back it up with PVA for the first few parts…
cool,expect to see pics soooon then
Waiting after you have already removed the mold from the plug does more harm than good. Normally if you’re going to wait, you’re supposed to leave the mold sitting with the plug so it doesn’t warp as it goes through the shrinking/curing process. If you have already popped the mold out, make as many parts as you can before it goes bad.
That’s why you see companies like VIS have parts that fit and parts that don’t fit. The first batch of parts out of the same mold might fit ok but the mold keeps shrinking and warping so the later batches have pretty bad fitment.
^^^What kind of general timeline are you refering to?
It depends on the materials. Most polyester fully cures @ 75F in about 4 days and most epoxies will fully cure in about 7-10 days. This is when you’re supposed to wait while leaving the mold sitting with the plug in it. Once it’s fully cured, you can remove the mold and start making parts.
This is by the book sort of speak. What you do with your molds is up to you. I don’t wait that long just because I cure the molds at a elevated temperature.
is 104F a good temp to cure my poly resins at? so far the parts i have made seem to be fine. i tend to leave them at 100F for about 5 hours per layer and then a final cure with all the layers over the plug for about 10 hours.
if this ok? would the extra heat help the resin set better and thus mean that i could use the mould sooner?
if need be i can cure the moulds at upto 130*f. what best?
thanks in advance
L.