Easy Tricks Using Fiberglass Strengthening!
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- Опубликовано: 24 окт 2019
- We demonstrate easy ways to use fiberglass to construct lightweight, strong, tough and even less expensive components for your projects.
Previous video - • The Tesla Catamaran!
Find us on Patreon - / techingredients
#DIY #Simple #Reinforcement 
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You, and channels like yours, are what the internet was made for.
_Thank you_ for increasing the collective intelligence of our species.
I can't believe I never thought to lay down tape before cutting fiberglass. Would have saved me a whole lot of mess in the past, and will now save me a lot in the future. Thank you very much!
Great!
After years of unwrapping the loose threads from my tools and my arms, I'm glad one of the techs from Gougion Bros. (West System) recommend this.😀
Love your vids Ben!!
Or use an electric shear, which quickly cuts e-glass to just about any shape without fraying.
We ended up taping, cutting and pre-impregnating fibreglass sheets for our solar boat. saved us so much trouble (and tools).
@@FrankenProjects dont forget about using thermal electric generators to charge you batteries as well.
What a great instructor! If all teachers were this good, I'd be a genius in no time.
Sorry to dissapoint you, but a genius isn't someone who just has lots of knowledge. It is someone with an exceptional intelligence or natrual skill, and is something that you are born with. Of course, skills can be learned, honed and channelled, but the there has to be an exceptional ability to build upon in the first place.
You already are Warren.
Whatever you learn you learn it yourself. Genius is not knowledge or memorization, but creativity and insight.
Pretty sure 'genius' is a tool you bring to class, not something you gain while there... It is true however, that non-boring teachers provide the possibility of better results for more students.
When removing your gloves, place the removed glove into the palm of the gloved hand. Pull the other glove off so it's inside-out and contains all the sticky nasties of both gloves. Keeps things a lot cleaner. Medical training was good for something!
Also the correct procedure in a chemistry lab, or a metallurgy lab or any other environment where disposable gloves are the appropriate PPE.
Medical style
Education per unit time is amazing in your videos. Never once am I tempted, as with many others, to say "yeah, yeah, get on with it!" I've had just one professor and one colleague that I'd put in the same league. And I'm old.
It's almost like some kind of laminar flow of knowledge. Maximum amount of transfer with minimal fuss and turbulence...
It's because, I think, he's got the perfect ratio of entertainment to education. He finds interesting applications with equally important principles behind them, which manages to both educate on the fundamentals but also give you something fun or interesting as a result. Which to me is the basis of science. Information and theories are all well and good, but what do they matter if you can't use them to do something?
@@decidiousrex this! Yes!
The only way to speed him up is to increase my playback speed - this lets me fit the time I have and not miss out on anything he teaches.
Completely agree, it's astonishes me that he can assist with the right explanation, right before you would think "why? what? how did you?"
Holy cow. Been fiberglassing since my 20's. Built boats in a factory, ran my portion of that shop. Learned more here than those wasted years. All in such a short time. It's not that anything is new(well, accept using the tape)it's just that the explanations make so much sense and follow in such a logical way. I've been itching for more news on the flying cat, but i'm in for the long haul, so carry on.
Flying cat? Do tell me more!
Fiber glass expert " itching for more news " Good one!
Pro. Verified
+1 on the hydrofoil! I can't wait to see how that boat gets above planing speed with those tiny motors... :-)
@@JesusFreke See the previous video.
One of the best Tech channels yet. A proper teacher that dude.
You are SOOOOOO articulate 😍😍🥰🥰 Your VOICE = beyond "radio quality", and the CLARITY of your intonation and your pronounciation is . . . second to NONE 🤩🤩 You are FARRR clearer than News presenters and talk-show hosts but when it comes to the delievery of your message = that part was something of unbelievable quality 👌👌👌💥💥💥.
One of the only channels where you can click the like button for the video before you've even watched it to the end because you know the content is going to be great
I always wondered about that film that formed on cured epoxy. I never would have guessed it is water soluble! Thanks for the tip, and everything in your videos.
Sure, thanks for the comment!
@@TechIngredients polyester be nice to hear your thoughts on using it as a cheaper than epoxy solution i am sure it has its down falls . say in application adhesive base instead of epoxy base
These are some of the most intelligent and useful videos on all of RUclips.
I’ve been doing some testing on fiberglass reinforcing 3D prints. As long as you get a good bond it can be incredibly strong even at low infills. Highly recommend trying it if you want to get similar performance to metal structures but only have access to a 3D printer.
Soft body armor! Can't wait for that one.
Stacked Kevlar and or Spectra fabric. Silicone panel filled with cornstarch and water to absorb the shock.
Yeah i cant wait to see that.
Backyard nuclear reactor in the video following that one.
@@WereAllThatBored cornstarch is weak as water, but non Newtonian fluids are fun.
Eugene Motley it can be used it type 3 body armor. Also reduces the weight of armor by 75%. Wish i could say It was my idea. A cadet helped develop the tech a few years back
The whole "wait for it to be tacky" that glue instructions always insist on now make sense! Thanks!
Moritz von Schweinitz I thought the very same thing. Now it makes sense!
13:08 "there's another advantage beside just using time, and that's by modifying the time."
For a second I thought, "great scott, he's done it. He invented a gravity machine."
That's tomorrow's episode. The time machine will be later this week... or WILL it??? :D
If he could ever alter time, he would have told us already I'm sure.
Its a pity, because unlike everyone else, he would explain it in a way that would make sense.
That's next week. LoL
@@McTroyd Maybe we already watched it...in an 'earlier' timeline O.o
I wish he *had* invented a gravity machine.. and cheap, huge heating blankets.. because so much of what he suggests just isn't possible when building a 37' ply & glass yacht hull. Flip it over to any convenient angle you like, any time you like, so as to have gravity working *with* you? Yeah, right.
Absolutely fantastic. After each video I think about that you can build a whole business on that knowledge. Ship building. Drone building. Laser building. Fridgerator building. Air conditioning building. Smoke candles. Scented ones. Some people can do only one of these and live from that for decades. Yet in the next week you show something new. :) Thanks!! :)
I WISH he was my dad, the amount of knowlege he can impart is amazing and I love how he goes about explaining it all
how would your father feel reading this commentary?
I'm pretty sure here is a "wish he was my dad" comment unter everyone of his videos xD .
@@josealmeida5768 Maybe the dad would think the same.
It is easy to wish a dad like this, especially if the one you had was an abusive drunk.
I'm guessing the cameraman is his son. Just a guess though since he keeps on appearing in shot.
Perfect timing. I'm thinking about coating plywood with fiberglass to remodel my basement shower stall. Motivated after I found out a lot of boats that have been sitting at the dock 20 or 30 years are just plywood coated in fiberglass. I figure if that can last 20 years outside it might last 30 years inside as my shower wall... if not, it's still a lot cheaper than the $2,000 to $3,000 quotes I received to have it tiled in.
Go for it! Decades ago my parents who were not rich by any measure decided it was time to quit renting and build our own house. No contractors, just us. And we didn’t have the internet or RUclips then! I was about 9 or 10 then. Learned a LOT. So worth doing it yourself.
Michael Link again. As I previously commented on another of your videos, I built a 4 place fiberglass/epoxy aircraft using (Burt) Rutan Long EZ building techniques. So, here are a couple of tips that I learned from the very extensive building/teaching plans that apply to this installment of your video series:
1. If bidirectional fiberglass cloth, (50/50 weave), is cut on a 45 degree bias, the cloth will drape over edges and irregular shapes much more easily. This wastes glass, but is worth the workability gains.
2. The most efficient and lightest way to fill in the weave pattern of a layup is to produce a thickened stucco like paste made from epoxy resin and glass microballoons. Mix by eyeball and experience to a consistency that will be relatively easy to spread, but not so wet as to be hard to sand after curing. I was able to create a surface smooth enough that, when painted, would allow laminar flow over the entire aircraft. (That was a primary reason that the plane could fly at around 220 MPH with a 180 HP engine.)
I've watched hundreds of fibreglass videos... THIS ONE BLOWS ALL THE OTHERS AWAY!
Thanks!
Take a look at some of our other videos, we follow the same principle with each one.😋
Going back and watching through the library of videos you’ve put out. I have to say, nearly every video is equally fascinating in vastly different ways. But what makes them all so awesome is how each idea could be put to such great and broad applications
Wow, this channel is just awesome... The topics covered, the great explanations, the interesting applied projects! I love it!
Thank you for all the thoughtful and detailed information and demonstrations. One other trick you can use is to put an irregularly shaped object coated with glue, cement, or epoxy into a plastic bag and draw a vacuum into the bag with a vacuum cleaner or some other suction source. Atmospheric pressure will push the plastic bag against the fiberglass and resin and push out the air leaving a smooth surface. I saw this technique on a show about restoring marble Italian statues, where they coated the statues with a thin liquid layer of cement and water before putting them in a plastic bag and reducing the pressure. It draws out the bubbles and preserves the shape. Thanks again for your channel.
Yes -- he wrote in a comment he's going to cover that technique.
Wow - wish I had seen this a couple of weeks ago. Cannot beat this channel for just the amount of information you get.
Thanks MP and SoMP. Loving your work as usual.
Wonderful suggestions - thank you very much for all the work you put in.
FYI,
Applying a skim coat of epoxy to the bare wood and letting it dry will solve the issue of the epoxy soaking into the wood when the fibrerglass cloth is applied. The cloth will be much easier to wet down and retain the full strength of the sandwich as opposed to having a portion of it sucked back into the wood & away from the cloth.
This is a trick used in many boat shops and really the only way to reach 100% of its potential. Excellent video
Obviously there are hundreds of professionals with fiberglass shops with videos on RUclips who, after many years of practice, are able to obtain good results and teach correctly, but but Having Science and Laboratory Technology at the Service of Education is a Completely Higher Level. Thank you very much for the Tech Ingredients channel.
You are very well prepared..I appreciate the thought that goes in to imparting so much knowledge in such short time.
Peel ply would be an interesting material to add to this video. It practically eliminates sanding and provides a uniform prepped surface. Another great video. Thank you 😊
Man, what a great video! I spend so much time hating on the scams on RUclips. This video is pure truth and beauty by comparison!
Without a doubt one of the best videos on fiberglassing techniques ever made. Wish this was available years ago.
Excellent video!
A few tips I learned over the years:
[1] Clean surfaces with acetone / or alcohol immediately before applying epoxy
[2] When working on vertical or even overhead surfaces, apply primer coat of epoxy, then let it become tacky, you can then apply cloth, the epoxy literally grabs the cloth!
[3] Peel Ply is your best friend, when working with epoxy, it saves a lot of time and effort.
Dude, I really like your videos. Thank you for making them.
Thank you, Tech Ingredients! It is AMAZING how much knowledge and expertise you can condense into 20 minutes.
Your level of detail is very refreshing.
More really informative content, really enjoying this project series. Fantastic work!
I always look forward to seeing the thumbnail of the next video, this one was worth the wait!
I love your style of explanation. Thank you so much for the demonstration!
Someone commented on how easy this teacher is easy to understand and gets to the point. Great teacher! I hate it when you look up a video for something and they don’t get to the point, mostly babbling which has nothing to do with what you wanted to see then finally they get to the point. Can’t stand that. This guy keeps you interested and to the point. Wish everyone could be like him.
I've watched a lot of videos and read a few books on this topic from the boat industry, and you definitely add a lot of value to this topic. With both theoretical understanding (e.g. the imagery of monomers protruding from the tacky gel to create the chemical adhesion) and well as practical application (e.g. the sandwich of low temp, controllable heat pads to modify curing time or the tape when cutting glass cloth). Thank you so much, honestly one of the best channels out there, you are making humanity better by sharing this knowledge in a useful way!!
Thank you!
These videos are fantastic! I feel like I learn so much from them. Thank you
So true, wish he would upload more often and create more projects
I love how he does not presume the viewer knows the basics and at the same time doesn’t talk down to us either. It’s as though we’re in a classroom learning about something for the first time. SO, SO many adults don’t know basic info these days. These videos are perfect for the times.
i wonder if your feelings are correct
What an excellent video. This guy explains the best way to do these techniques calmly and clearly. One of the best 'How to' video's I've watched in a very long time.
Eloquently explained and all in metric. 20 minutes very well spent. Thank you so much.
I've worked a lot with epoxy, in many different "flavours" so to speak, and found it to be very satisfying and rewarding, and you have demonstrated that a moment's thought can make an enormous difference. A particular favorite was an ultra low viscosity type for "potting" high voltage equipment, I look forward to more stuff about this material...cheers.
I have used heat lamps to speed curing on larger structures sort of a home built autoclve. Vacuum bagging helps also on larger parts.
by many oders of magnitude, this has to be the bast all-round channel on RUclips.
Right on ! you think about every detail and you don't overlook things. I like that.
I have just discovered this channel and wish to thank you for your generosity in taking the time to share your knowledge.
This video is immensely helpful to me and the its presentation/ production is top notch. All the best from Western Australia.
COOL !! i love your videos, so well explained, so technical, acurate, precise! excelent always!
Best practice when glassing over wood or any other surface that will absorb resin is to wet the surface prior to placing the glass on top and wetting it out. Working with non-blushing epoxy eliminates the need for removing the amine blush. Laminating additional layers before full cure 24+ hours still creates a chemical bond and then no need to create a mechanical bond via tooth from roughing the surface.
I've recently been using epoxy, both the standard and thinner, penetrating type, on many projects recently. Your video taught me a lot. Thanks! One tip that I have for you is to purchase some silicone baking mats. Nothing sticks to them and you can use them both to protect your work surfaces and to produce a smooth finish. I recently repaired a puncture in a pool safety cover using epoxy and some pet-proof window screen scrap sandwiched between two silicone mats with a concrete paver left on top overnight. The result was as strong and professional looking as anything you could hope for. I also use parchment paper (like they use for baking cookies) for larger projects.
Good suggestion, thanks.
Best fiberglass video ever! My understanding of the process is miles ahead of where I was before watching this video. Thank you very much!
THANK YOU MY MASTER!
i call this way every1 who teached me alot of usefull stuff...
I'm never going to use this knowledge, but I'm still watching it every time!
I like that you are showing us the individual techniques you used to build the boat. This makes me want to try to build one myself.
One of my fav vids is the home made baffling for an anechoic space. This saves so much $, and space too
3:46 *Smirks* also this will be quite useful as we do composite manufacturing for my Formula Student team. Great video once again.
FSAE?
Looking forward to a video where you discuss resins. Particularly epoxy vs esters (polyester, vinylester, gelcoat etc).
Me too, Someone mentioned polyurethane is better than epoxy - ideas anyone? I’m brand new to this.
@@ManitaHoltrop Polyurethane is the strongest of all the resins ! It's also the hardest to work with! The catalyst can be very toxic! (moca).
The BEST fiberglass video I've seen! I did a boat repair project this summer and watched a bunch of YT videos - none of them explained the "wet-on-wet" technique as well as you did (not one mentioned the amine layer). Every video said to wipe down with acetone (and I think it was AFTER sanding).
TI videos remind me of the Mr. Wizard TV series and Dr. George Fischbeck rolled into one. The technical explanations have real depth and are smoothly delivered. Great series on the thermoelectrics Thank you to the TI team. Rock on.
Wow, what an interesting and eye-opening overview! I can definitely see a use for this process to create very strong, durable and beautiful wood working projects like furniture or cabinetry!
THis individual is a genius who decided to be a teacher. Thank you!
Takes me back to 1975 when I used to make surf ski canoe and using polystyrene shaped canoe and then covering like you have just demonstrated. And many of them are still operating in the Cape Town beach of milnerton where the surf life saving club is today
Good work
I've been an Engineer for fifty years and yet everytime I watch you're content I learn something new and find new ways to improve my designs. Thanks for all the the work you put into these videos you do an amazing job.
Thank you!
Want to build with this stuff on my tear drop trailer project, maybe after that I can build a boat or even a plane? That’s my bucket list.
It is pretty easy as long as you respect it and follow the guides and manufacturing recommendations. It is surprisingly forgiving.
The popular homebuilt airplane designs like a Long-Ez, Cozy and others use epoxy and various foams to build up the structure. The plans give you detailed instructions on how to do it and it is very similar to this demonstration. You can wait until the epoxy is almost hard and easily cut off the overhanging cloth with a single edged razor blade for a nice edge which prevents much cutting and sanding later.
first is to make the bucket.
Far out, I didn't realize fiberglass made such a big difference in strength.
You are a very very thorough intelligent teacher, Im sure your family appreciates you greatly. Thank you !
I have a 1970’s era Toyota Land Cruiser wagon (FJ55, for those who know). Good body steel was hard to come by back then; what was available was prone to early oxidation failure, and many of these have since rusted away.
The previous owner attempted to fix holes in the roof with sheet metal and Bondo - needless to say, that fix wasn’t successful.
After watching, I’m inspired to clear the previous work and do a fiberglass repair. I’ve heard West Marine is a great product supplier.
They are. Good luck!
One of the things that a lot of people trying to do automotive panels with composites should learn is the basics of tensegrity that you touched on with your fiberglass reinforced foam. One of the easier ways to take advantage of that mechanism is to use foam or honeycomb structures to create a ribbing or webbing matrix on your fiberglass or composite panel, and then glass right over it. The foam being encased in your composite of choice will prevent it being the weak point by deflecting loads through the vertical sections of the enclosure, thus allowing you to bind two rigid surfaces into a structure wherein a compressive or tensile force applied to one surface is counteracted by a tensile or compressive force from the other by the forces being transmitted through the vertical support structure as a lever. It's like an I or H beam being more difficult to bend along its faces. These ideas are nowhere near new in the automotive world. Open the hood of any car and peel back the sound and heat isolation if it has any and you'll see an example of what I mean made out of stamped steel. Except with composites you can go a step further than auto makers can with their hood panels and you can bond the two layers together, enhancing the efficiency of that mechanism and further reducing the potential deflection of your panels. It's such a cool, easy trick that you rarely see used when people decide that they absolutely need to make a carbon fiber hood or fenders or whatever for their car, then they end up with a floppier panel or they have to use several more sheets of carbon fiber to reach the same stiffness.
I love these videos! Im still working on gathering all the components to buid the huge speaker boxes from your previous video. In your opinion, if I add fiberglass to the speaker boxes, would that improve on the sound?
You can not imagine how much you have helped me. Thanks 🙏
That was the best 20 minute fiberglass lesson! Many thanks!!!
"Unless you're an insomniac ..." Well that totally checks out.
I watched it at 4am finishing a project for a friend... LOL, I guess I have my answer, people tell me I'm crazy. I show them how much more you can get done without "all you idiots being in the way." :-P
Takes a sip from homemade banana whiskey
"Let's make soft body armor"
love the pragmatic,systematic,logic used with all your videos. So refreshing science slake's the thirst for knowledge!!
Also, baby powder on your skin and sleeves seams, and neck seams, lessens itching drastically when laying up large areas or sanding.
Rubbing dish washing liquid with a tiny bit of water, and letting it dry, before starting with the resin or mat also works. And you clean up easily.
Try "scrunching up" heavy weave or chop-strand before applying to the resin, it will lay around corners and in valleys better!
Could you in future videos go into building more complex shapes? Such as body panels for cars, winglets or whatever else that has complex shapes?
We will when we demonstrate vacuum bagging.
@@TechIngredients Ziploc storage style I hope.
Woke up, saw notification, my brain just had breakfast.
Completely awesome. Lots of possibilities running through my mind!
As always: Condensed and precise. Just what I like.
There are so many different epoxy options that have huge variety in their curing time how are you to individually per epoxy basis know when the epoxy is in a great state that it can still form a good connection to new layer of epoxy? just a feeling of stickiness? also a lot of people use vacuum to draw out the air from wood for instance when they want to drench the wood in epoxy but it might not be practical at all depending on the scale of whatever you are trying to coat or get fully air out of.
on a second not i would love to see a video where you compare materials available to home shops. lets say you want to build a bike frame or a little remote airplane. these kind of videos give a great insight on one way to do things but it would be great to have like a over all material introductionary video on what are some great materials that you can build realistically in your own garage to have an overview of what options are available in general. this is something i feel no channel really does that well. a lot of channels like applied siences etc do really great job in smaller areas but nobody really offers like a consolidated over view of different options available in lets say materials you could build a boat frame from. maybe there would be a demand for such videos too.
The Hardener just changes the speed of the chemical reaction so you get a set point time depending on temperature.
Pot life is important for how long you can use the epoxy depending on the hardener and for most i think varies from 10 minutes to an hour.
Epoxy should be good as long as it is sticky but lower temperatures really mess with it so you need heating below 15 celsius although west coast claims good results down to 3 celsius. it goes from Liquid, gel, hard and the final cure and full strength can take 36 hours or more. As long as you apply the next coat while it is sticky the cross linkinging should still occur. Humidity is a bitch too apparently and can cause problems with materials releasing moisture during the cure. Preheating the epoxy in a bath or hot box really helps kick start the reaction if working in the cold.
Some Industrial stuff is set up so it has a post curing phase that you heat it to finish to cure but i do not think most of that is available to us plebs. i got the number for the sale rep for my country who was a wealth of knowledge. I used West Coast who have good information for home use but Sicomin Epoxy Resin
is around 20-30% Cheaper if you can find a source and apparently is used very heavily in my country. But information is harder to come by so it's worth just asking reps if you can find contact info. For comparison i paid £110 pound for 6kg West Coast and £90 For Sicomin at the same volume.
You check on it periodically. When it is soft but not tacky, that is when you can re-coat or cut with a razor or whatever.
I wish you had taught us in my college, I would never have skip the classes
your generosity with your knowledge is greatly appreciated. Many thanks..
Wow you really explain things well i’m 56 years old a retired Woodworker and ive owned 16 or 17 boats in my life all of which i always did all my maintenance and repairs btw i grew up in South Florida and as a teenager worked on Boats a feature i would like to see someone do on You tube is a comparison on some of the Epoxy manufacturers we have t available these days more Specifically West and total Boat as one of my future projects i hope to be a Cedar Strip or Cold molded boat i am looking foward to viewing more of your videos
I must say that I was never interested in building a boat until 5 minutes ago.
DIY boat, you say? Now I'm interested.
@@squalosus223 Nah, I'm too stupid and lazy to actually build anything.
Idk a kayak would be pretty cool, especially if building is cheaper than buying.
When you insulated the piece to speed up the curing process, you laid down a piece of cling wrap directly on the curing expoy, is there no risk of that impacting the final surface?
Absolutely.
So, if the surface finish matters we'll show you how to protect it in the next video.
If you can increase the room temperature using dry, petroleum free heat, you can decrease your cure time by half for every 10 degrees above 77 degrees F.
@@WereAllThatBored why "petroleum free"? Is there something special about it?
@@cabletie69 Pay no mind. He's just trying to make himself look smarter than he is.
cabletie69 byproducts of burning petroleum and epoxy do not play nice. It’s more about contamination your work space and potentially your layup. Same reason a heat gun is recommended to pop air bubbles in table top epoxy vs a torch.
Every time I watch one of your videos, I learn something new. Just amazing. FYI, I intend to make a hydroponic water way out of 1/4in plywood and fiberglass and a water tank out of 1/2in plywood and fiberglass on both the inside and outside for an indoor hydroponic system farm. Thanks!
Just a couple of things technical; multiple layers of a lighter cloth makes a stronger laminate than one heavy cloth; the 'scrim backed' weave - chop strand stuck together with cloth is recommended for use with polyester or vinylester resins and not epoxy resin because the epoxy cannot breakdown the glue used in the mat. Also the other glass - the boat glass - is E glass. When wetting out cloth, use a squeegy. Last thing gel time is different than cure time.
Loved the casual "we're going to be working on soft body armor" throwaway.
Have you thought of doing tech consulting? I would pay for that.
judging by his epic house and workshop, i think he's probably doing ok for money.
11:58 This is the kind of information that makes me addicted to this channel. I need more of this!!! Thanks for knowing all this stuff and sharing it so clearly! I give you 11/10. 😉
I really appreciate learning through principles rather than rules. Principles can be applied, rules teach you not to question. This is one of the most informative fiberglass videos I have seen. Its given me more confidence to tackle a project of my own. Many thanks
Sure!
The modern day "Don Herbert"
Ok so now I just need to find something to enhance with fiberglass. Will a cat do?
Catamaran?😾
@@TechIngredients :O Cats float, right..?
The last thing you want is a cat with built-in body armor that thinks it's invincible!
Not to be dogmatic, that would be catastrophic
This is by far the most informative video I've seen on this subject in a long while.
Thank you!
This channel is so full of useful tips for any project. Thanks. Keep up the great work.
I would drop everything for a chance to intern at this workshop/lab. A bold claim for a guy in his late 30's, to be sure, but I stand by it nonetheless...
In Australia, in very similar state.
I claim the same. Bold is good word.
If he doesn't teach already he could, no government deserves him IMHO
Discovery channel on steroids. Nice!
Love your channel. I learn something each time. That's a real gift! Thank you.
Love this video on working fiberglass, learned a lot. One trick I do to avoid sanding is a small variation on the plastic wrap trick.
Lay a plastic board - like a corrugated real estate sign or this plastic wrap and a flat surface over your wetted project.
The end result has a super flat glass like surface.
Of course we all know epoxy/vinyl ester does not stick to plastic.