Re: epoxy and heat and glass thickness?
The trick is to get everything ready before you start the job. Pre-cut all your pieces and have them on hand. Get all your materials laid out so you have easy working access to them.
If you are working with large sheets it is best to have a helper. Pre-coat the surface to be glassed using a cheap paint roller. I use the four inch rollers for stringers, the 9 inch for decks. Use a cheap chip brush to pre-coat corners and for dabbing out air pockets. When you pre-coat roll on enough resin so that the surface looks completely wet.
When working with smaller pieces it is best to wet out the cloth prior to placing it. (pre-coat a little less, but still do it) lay the wet cloth in place and roll over it with a dry paint roller or squeegee the excess resin out using a plastic spreader.
On larger pieces where wetting out the cloth prior to placment is not possible. (say larger than 3' x 3') Lay the cloth in dry on a heavier pre-coated surface. Then quickly wet the cloth in using a paint roller. It helps to really load the roller heavy here and work quickly. Keep rolling on wet resin until the cloth looks translucent.
At this point I cannot stress the value of a grooved roller enough! Use the longest grooved roller you can depending on the surface you are working with. (I have a 4"x 1" and a 6"x 1") If I had it to do over again, I would also get a smaller diameter grooved roller for the inside corners, 1" is a little large for that. Use the grooved roller (compression roller) to roll the cloth after it is wet to remove air bubbles and voids. You will have the most difficult time getting the voids out of corners. (inside and outside) IF you get bad bubbles at the corners it may necessary to use a lighter cloth in those areas and build them up with more layers.
get one of these!
In my experience it is much easier to tab in corners using fiberglass tapes rather than cutting all those strips out. If you have relatively low stringers it may be possible to wrap them from top to bottom. If you have larger, taller stringers it is easier to tab the lower corners, do the sides flat and cap the tops in alternating layers.
(tab, slab, cap- slab, tab. cap- slab, tab...and so on)
my glassing tools
