I have gotten pretty good at getting my resin research hot coats to lay out nice. I can usually start sanding the flats with 120 grit. I have been having some issues with the rails especially right where my tape lines are at the apex of the rail. This is generally the only area of the board i slightly kiss the weave. definitely not going thru the weave but just barely hitting it. do people razor scrape this line similar to doing a poly gloss?
I know the hotcoat is going to be thinnest there due to gravity. But is there anything i can do to help out? maybe i am making to many passes with the brush on the rails? I usually lay out the hotcoat nose to tail, cross stroke twice then final nose to tail. After that i make a few extra passes along the rail to help drips.
Is double hotcoating the rails a crazy idea?
just would like to be able to not kiss the weave in these areas, and make it easier for me to sand out. the rails take me forever by hand trying to be careful not to hit the cloth.
also have heard quik kik is nice for hot coats as it is much thicker? i have never used it
Hi deez - If you ever visited a factory you’d probably be surprised at the amount of exposed weave on a sanded fill coat or hot coat. This usually is covered up by some sort of gloss coat or seal coat. It is not unheard of however to ‘baste’ the laps and rails - essentially a double coat that helps fill in any irregularities and preserve weave. Just tape off the apron as usual then brush a coat of resin over the lap and rail. As soon as it cures to a green state (solid but not fully cured), proceed with your fill coat as you normally would. Sanding should be a bit easier and the extra layer will help minimize hitting the weave.
right on, yeah no issues with the lap line. just right on the apex of the rail. I usually do a wipe of concrete sealer this hides the burn thru. but seems to be temporary after a few surfs the weave starts to show thru.
Hi deez - Poly gloss can be used over a rough sanded epoxy fill coat. It provides decent UV protection. I’ve also done epoxy seal coats and left them fine sanded - it can be difficult to get a decent buff out with epoxy. You might try 3-4 coats of the concrete sealer.
For sure last board sanded out with 80 grit then poly gloss. Was able to then just sand 400-600- and polish. But would rather not have to poly coat everyboard. I would do 2nd epoxy coat, but seema extreme when only the rails need slight attention. Plus i have never had any luck getting a 2nd epoxy hot coat to lay out flat. Always seem to have to start sanding with 80-120 again which is just crazy. Going to try a sweet coat on the rails before hot coat on the next i believe
I razor scrape after each side. You might have to go to a finer grit paper sooner on the rails to minimize the burn through. The rails put more pressure on the paper since it is a tight curve.
Sorry for the confusion i start sanding rails with 220.
80-120 start is for the flats on deck and bottom only. Thanks for the tips so far, will definitely try a baste on the next one.
R U using a power sander? Lots of pros won’t use a power sander on the rails. Just their hands.
Sometimes I scrape the bead along the rail with a razor blade or a thin piece of steel I have, sometimes I use a vixen file, sometimes I just sand it. Scraping works good. Then I do 220, 400, 600, 1200 all wet sanding.
You could try doing a seamless gloss which allows for two layers of resin around the rail.
The way i got taught was to do the bottom fill as normal and work some resin around the rail and onto the deck. Timing is key to make sure the resin doesn’t run/ lump up on the deck side. Once it has gelled you tape up say one inch from the rail on the bottom side and filler coat the deck.
When sanding I like to use more grits and be less aggressive with each grit on the rail and slowly work the scratches out as i go through each paper. If you work out all the shineys to earlier you can sometimes run into weave when you try to remove the scratches from the previous grit.