: I think I may have a problem. Last night I fibreglassed the hull of the Great
: Auk I am building. Yesterday morning I gave the hull a very light wipe
: with a tack rag to remove the dust. Today I discovered that the MAS Epoxy
: brochure advises: "DO NOT WIPE SURFACE WITH A TACK RAG". Am I
: doomed? I assume that there is some type of solvent in the tack rag that
: may inhibit the ability of the epoxy to bond with the wood. Everything
: "looks" okay right now. Should I just go ahead and apply the
: next coat of epoxy and hope for the best or would I be wasting my time and
: epoxy? If this is a problem, what is the remedy short of sparkin' up my
: Husqvarna chainsaw.

O.K. Mister, drop what you are doing and STEP AWAY FROM THE HUSKY!!!

Well Greg, from the sound of it, you may have already escaped the damage you would have incurred from the tack rag. I think most guys are using the tack or Tac rags to clean off epoxy or varnish layers. I don't use the things because they have a wax in them that actually does the dust pick up and that wax will obviously get onto your finish. You would have gotten little craters in the finish where the epoxy didn't stick to it. Believe me, if they were there, you'd see them. Not a pretty sight. If your finish looks o.k. then you got away with a big one. If you try to build epoxy over them it will merely make the craters bigger or uglier. You would be forced to sand down to that area and start over again by patching in. Someone here layed down a good set of rules for using the tack rags a while back, maybe George Roberts or Rob Macks???, and I'm sure the manufacturer has them too, but..... personally, I don't take chances with my finishes and don't even own one. There are toooo many other alternatives to look at. Hope it all comes out o.k. and either throw the tack rags away, or get some professional help in the proper use of them.

Rehd