I may be pilloried for this, but I never bother with a seal coat. I just let the first coat sink in well before squeegeeing.

I used to always slightly bias the cloth, but recently I have been applying it parallel to the centre line. The reason is that I found with differing timbers the absorption rate of the resin changes and since I tend to have straight patterns there is less chance of ripples forming in the cloth if it is parallel. This happened on the inside of a deck so it wasn't an issue, but I am not chancing it on the outside.

Of course, if I had seal coated it probably wouldn't have happened.

Everyone is wary of the epoxy job first time around. When it's wet out the glass will be more forgiving than you expect.

Get everything laid out in advance and the temps right and make sure you get your mixes right. One pump resin, one pump hardener, one pump resin one pump hardener, etc. Then mix well.

Then just go through the process phlegmatically. No need to panic.

Use a vapour mask, really, use a vapour mask.

When your first coat is on and squeegeed, turn down the heat and walk away for a few hours, then fill coats at appropriate intervals. The heat is not so important for fill coats although warmth helps. Don't sand between coats.