What says the consensus here? I’m copying some pieces, and will only make about 10 of them per mold. Can I get by with regular gelcoat? Of course…if I do that, then demand will probably go up to 20 pieces :lol:
These will be thin infused pieces, approx 1/8" thick or less.
Thanks as always
I have made 50 or more parts out of a mould made using normal gel-coat and have had no problems whatsover.
If you were making RTM moulds say, for industrial scale production, where heat cycling would be a major condsideration then tooling gel-coat certainly would be a very good idea, but in regard to smaller scale hobby production, care in making your moulds is going to count for a lot more than what gel-coat you choose to use.
And to add the above posting, make the mold 3 tp 5 times thicker than the part will be made to prevent distortion.
Its also worth bearing in mind that some moulds can be made considerably stiffer, if you laminate in something like paper rope to form stiffening ribs when making the mould.
With certain types of moulds, this technique will allow a thinner mould, which is just as strong as something a lot thicker, and which can be made faster.
Sounds good. I figured it would work well enough, but I’ve always used tooling or epoxy on past projects.
I’m not exactly sure what paper rope is, but I do recall someone in here using toilet paper and paper towel roll tubes as a ‘core’ material. Have to dig around the kitchen and see what I can find.
TP on a rope…that’s a new one! 
Cardboard can be used as a poor mans honeycomb for molds.
Paper rope is available in different diameters, and has a wire core so it will easily conform to any shape of mould, and is a really quick and easy way of adding strength/stiffness to a mould.