Monday, June 20, 2011

Finishing the epoxy

I thought that I would be varnishing this weekend, but I was being overly optimistic. I wasted a lot of time sanding the epoxy. I would sand down until I was just touching the top of the glass cloth. Then I rolled on a thin coat of epoxy. Then I would sand again.


My coats of epoxy were way to thin. Every time I started to sand, I would sand back down to the cloth without ever trying to. I would barely sand at all and I was back into the cloth. You do not want to sand into the cloth because that will damage the integrity of the glass. Plus I was wasting time coating, waiting to cure, and sanding over and over again, and still not having a finish that I could varnish.




Time to change the process. I rolled three coats of epoxy in a row, without sanding in between.
As soon as one coat started to firm up, I laid down another coat. About 6 or 8 hours between coats. That way they they will chemically bond to each other.




That worked out great. After 48 hours of curing time, I was able to sand out all the orange peel without sanding to deep. Never touching the glass. I was able to sand the entire kayak in about three hours.




After I took these photos, I loaded up the Wood Duck and went to Lake Fenton. The fishing was great. Hooking a nice bass in a kayak makes for an exciting after noon.





2 comments:

  1. Yep...I know exactly what your going through. I had the same issues but it took me weeks to figure it out. I just finished with the 3rd coat of varnish. Your kayak is looking great. No work on my boat this weekend..off to Howell the balloon event.

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  2. Lou, found your blog while researching wooden boat/kayak building. Was excited to see you live close by ( I live in Holly). WOul dlike to connect with you and ask your advice about building boats as a career. Loren_spencer@yahoo.com

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