Not sure how relevant this is, but I have used a "poor man's method" for laminating and getting the excess resin out of multiple layers, where I place a sheet of plastic on top, and then a 1" piece of upholstery foam on that, and then a piece of plywood on that, and then lots of misc. weights.
For small projects, I have placed a piece of foam and a matching 1/4" piece of plywood into a large plastic zip-lok bag, and place that on the layup I need to get the excess resin out of.
Nowhere near as good vacuum bagging, but as my father used to say (having survived thru the Great Depression), "poor folk have poor ways" !
Some good ideas there. I would say that was one of the big takeaways is this is one of the tricks, getting the resin out of the layers. Looking at the picture just before I covered it, you can see the cloth pattern, so I thought I had done a good job, but as soon as I added the weight it is clear that more came out.
In the vein of vacuum bagging I had thought about doing something with a shop vac, but then I got over it....