I hope no-one minds another long explanation. It’s hard with just a written description, hard to write, and hard to comprehend individual descriptions. With much trial and error I have another way to do the laps and I’ll try to explain.
Before mixing pull any loose threads from the centre of the lap cut, leaving maybe four to six inches clear of threads in the centre. Neaten the fray to about 5mm/1/4" with scissors. Using that as a centre reference, all rail work radiates from that point. Never pull down at this stage, as just centre to tip motion will not disturb the weave. Horizontal motion, not vertical.
With the bottom facing up, think of the board in four quarters from the dead centre out. Pour and sweegee the whole bottom spreading evenly, enough to soak and saturate, but not flood. Too much and the cloth acts like a sponge. Sweegeeing pretty tight and displacing the excess, pushing the cloth down tight in long strokes, try to control it from the centre out, and allow very few drips on the rail, just a dribble. Don’t work it too much, minimise frothing.
Now the rails, one quarter at a time, starting in the centre. Pour a sufficient bead onto on the flat right next to the rail, starting at centre to the tip, less at the tip. Hold the sweegee edge on the flat and parallel (horizontal), the other hand flat and face up (gloved of course and a little wet with resin to allow it to slide easily) underneath the cloth on the same plane. Basicly, the bottom of the board, the sweegee, and the other hand, all in line, sweegee overlapping both the board and hand.
Then, in one motion, move from the middle (rail) of the board to the tip, wet hand underneath acting as an extension of the bottom, fingertips lightly touching the rail as a guide, the sweegee angled to push the resin bead onto the cloth supported by the other hand. Basicly running the dry lap cloth between the flat hand and the sweegee, the sweegee evenly pushing the bead of resin on to the lap. Don’t squeeze tight, just enough to allow the resin to spread. This can be done, with practice, pretty quickly, and leaves enough resin to saturate. Dry spots may be left but can be wet quickly using the same technique.
While repeating on all other rails excess will drip off. Making sure the bottom is clear of excess resin, flex the sweegee to a curve (thumb centre, four fingers spread) and match that curve to the rail shape. Using the same centre to tip motion, match the curve (the sweegee can be angled, top edge forward, bottom edge trailing) and work your way down the lap. With practice this can be done in two or three sweeps.
Using exactly the same action and angles, all excess resin can be removed leaving a very clean and string free lap, with only small touch-ups necessary at the end. Easy to file or sand, and if the scissor cut is accuracte, very neat.
Obviously the nose and tail must be worked on, and there are more techniques on cutting, folding and wrapping nose and tail tips economically, but that’s another story and would, like this technique, be better shown with pics or video.
I hope someone out there can understand and use this to help them stress less while glassing. It took me a while, but I find it the quickest and most economical in both energy and resin.
Have fun, wear protection. Go surfing.