A lot of people on this site seem to have problems with Epoxy. Now I understand why.
Out of curiosity I tried the squeegee cheater coat method on a board recently. Normally I hot coat with 9 oz epoxy on a 6’ish shortboard. I squeegeed 3 oz on. Let it cure. Didn’t sand. Then brushed 6oz over that. After cure, sanded as I usually do: 100/150/220/320. Honestly I didn’t notice a quality difference between this two-step method and just doing a 9oz hot coat with the same sanding method. Seems like a waste of time.
A lot of the methods described above seem to be taking the approach of multiple coats of epoxy. I find this wasteful of material and adds multiple hours (even days) to the process. If you have plenty of time, that’s fine. I’m looking to be as efficient as possible and achieve a pro-quality result. I shoot for a good single sanded hot coat, sanded to 320, followed by two wiped on layers of Behr masonry sealer (these coats literally take 15 minutes to dry). Buff out the sealer with red/grey scotchbrite.
While I still get minor burnthoughs, I’m getting better and a quick hit with clear rattle can (prior to wiping on the behrs sealer) hides and seals the burnthroughs. I also am learning (thanks captain obvious) the better quality the lam and lap-grind, the better the hot coat and better the sand job. So my focus is best possible lam, lap grind, and smart sanding technique. Don’t use anything courser than 220 on rails, keep the sander moving. Again, not perfect yet but my goal is to perfect the most efficient technique in terms of time and material usage.
As you jamie i try to be time efficient with good quality finish. The trick of wipe epoxy before hot coat is to avoid fish eyes and zits. If you don’t contaminate your lam when sanding lap/cleaning before hot coat, and you work in warm area (fluid resin) not needed.
Mc Ding, i think that most people have problems with epoxy because they don’t work in good weather and because they over think so add steps that add more problems than solutions. Other don’t have access to “modern surfboard epoxy” old ones can be really hard to work with. I use epoxy for 25 years for surfboards to industrial and plane parts, had all kind of problem but i know now how to deal avoid them LOL.
If you want to try a cheater squeegee coat, wait till tacky and then apply a final brush coat, this is a video you can follow for the basics…
Should be able to coat in one shot…S ad a bit b4 your coat,as you prob already do-cut laps right? Use a bit more resin and keep an eye on it…in the end it’s what works for you…have fun…
*all these are 1coat…',cept the balsa vac bag…
After reading through most of this I think Ya’all are making a simple process complicated. I do epoxy just like I do polyester. I’ve done the fill coat weeks after the lam and I’ve done a second "gloss’ coat weeks after the fill coat. Just wiped the dust and rat turds off with a dry paper towel. Mike
Rooster, for sure it can be as simple and if you have great resin and weather no problems. But you can have massive problems if you are not lucky…
Ok, so I did the “wet in wet”-method on the deck and the “sanding-between” method for the bottom. The bottom came out way better, the deck was more uneven. Both took approximately the same time, effectively. THe only advantage of the wet in wet method I found was that I didm´t have to wait for the first layer to cure.
Thanks for your input!