This evening I was thinking about potential problems that might be encountered when trying to remove the composite part from the tooling. One possible significant problem could be that due to the large part-tool contact surface area, the part may not want to come off easily. To fix this, I have come up with a way to allow compressed air to be used to 'pop' the part off of the tooling.
This picture shows where a hole (maybe 1/2" diameter or so?) could be drilled in the top of the box part of the tooling. On the inside, a nut will be welded of an inside diameter that is slightly bigger than the hole. This will allow a specially ground bolt to fit in the hole and plug it so that it is air tight and no resin leaks through. Once the part is cured, the bolt can be removed and an air fitting screwed in so that compressed air can be used to push the part away from the steel tooling.
My only concern is that the thin 12ga steel might warp when the nut is welded to it. I think that maybe just making a few tack welds and sealing the seam with JB weld should be sufficient to make the joint air tight with minimal warpage.
Even if the plug bolt is not perfectly flush with the surface of the mold, it could be positioned so that the fitting is on the part of the composite that will get cut out to allow room for the fairlead.
