In article ,
Richard Riley wrote:

On Sat, 24 Sep 2005 23:22:04 -0700, Smitty Two
wrote:

: Unless your process is unaffected by temperature
vershoot and fluctuations of 20 degrees F or more, flipping the power
:to an electric heater isn't adequate. The OP is building a bicycle, not
:an airplane, but I'm sure he doesn't want his carbon fiber frame
:disintegrating at 60 mph.

I've worked with a lot of carbon pre-preg, and none of them were
*that* sensitive to temperature variations in curing. Of course, my
oven had a big enough thermal mass that it didn't do ANYTHING quickly
-it was 8'x6'x25' and 6000 watts of heating element.

Like I said, I have zero experience with composites and have no idea how
touchy they are. I agree that your setup has plenty of inherent
temperature stability. The OP wants ramping control on the way up and
again on the way down. Even taking target temperature fluctuation out of
the picture, he sure isn't going to get that with a light switch.

Does carbon fiber cure with different mechanical properties if it's
cured in different ways? We do some heat treating of machined components
at work, and there are pretty specific recipes for obtaining different
properties in various metals. Besides different times and temps, the
cool down ramp is also important, varying from hours to seconds (oil
quenching.)