I'm having a bit of a 'mare.  I'm trying to make a flat carbon panel.  The "mould" is a sheet of glass.  I've coated it with easy-lease but when I put on the first layer of resin (EL2 fast) it fish-eyes straight away.  There seems no point letting the first layer dry to a tacky state as it's just pools of resin.  Should I just get on with laying the fibre straight on the wet resin.
I have also tried using the epoxy gel coat for the first layer but still had some fish-eyes plus as it went tacky it appeared to crystalise.  Wasn't right at all.  (Is it possible for gel coat to go off with storage in a fairly cold garage?)  It's also not particularly clear, it's a sort of smoky blue.
Not sure where to go now to get a decent wet layup flat sheet technique.  Any help gratefully received. 

Hi,

Easylease being such a powerful release agent can be troublesome when working with gelcoats or similar. Generally flat sheet is made by laying the fibre and resin straight onto the moulding surface, a common method is as follows:

1. 'Wet out' the moulding surface with approximately 200grams of resin per square meter.
2. Lay the reinforcement onto the wet resin immediately
3. Either bristle roller or squeegee the fibre until the fibre is wetted-through, to this slowly to avoid driving air back into the laminate or causing the resin to foam.
4. Repeat until the desired number of plys has been achieved.

With a little practice you should be able to produce sheets with a pin-hole free and 100% glossy surface without the need for any form of 'gel-coat'. A good tip to keeping the weave of your first ply nice and straight is to apply masking tape to the edges to hold them in shape.

Paul Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical