What's the Difference (Hotcoat & Gloss)?

General Discussion
1

I just did a gloss coat on my 4th board, and I was wondering 2 things:

1.) What would happen if you simply tried to sand a hotcoat down to say…400 and then polished the same way you polish a gloss coat? What would it look like, sanded hotcoat? Semi polished? Full shine?

2.) I guess this is kind of similar to number one, but it seems to me that it would be very easy to sand through the gloss coat in some areas (spots on the rails, etc…). If that happens, and you polished the gloss coat, would those areas show up looking waaaay different or would it barely be noticeable(sp?)?

I’ve come to realize, after the 4th board, that most of my problems with sanding have been me kicking the resin to quick, and the wax not rising, leaving everything gummy. Thanks to all who suggested simply re-hotcoating a board if it’s gummy. I did that on this one, kicked it much slower, and sure enough, it comes out perfect.

2

Hotcoats can be sanded and polished, but you’ll find that a properly done glosscoat is a lot easier. Since hotcoats are thicker and harder to brush, there’s lots of bubbles, brush marks and zits = more sanding with coarser grits. Most of us aren’t good enough hotcoaters to not have these problems. Kokua gave some porportions for styrene and SA in gloss a while back, check the archives. That mix has been working great for me, and you can start sanding with 320. You have very low risk of sand thru with the finer grit. I use a homemade very soft foam pad for rails, but it’s always safer to do them by hand (cut the tapeline first with a file).