Ralph,

I wet out each layer separately using a roller (7 inch rolls cut in half) and this worked fine. I liked using the rollers as I felt I could put on just enough resin to wet out without having excess to squeegee off. I didn't have a puddle of resin to push around. A drawback to tightly woven cloth is that it can trap very tiny bubbles if the resin is overworked (rollers or squeegee). The bubbles cannot float to the surface through the tight weave. Use a light touch and do not force over worked resin into the weave. I had some of this in the concave bow section of the hull where I worked too much with the squeegee. I'm sure getting heavy handed with a roller can cause problems just as much as pushing resin around with a squeegee.

After the first hull layer, I applied less resin to the following layers and almost completely avoided the squeegee. I only touched up small areas that looked like the effort might be beneficial.

The difference between squeegeeing off open weave vs the Raka satin weave is astounding. Doing the hull yielded no more than an ounce while on my open weave boats I got a tub full. This is not excactly an apples to apples comparison, but there is a lot of difference. The Raka 3.25 satin cloth is amazingly smooth. It will not hold much resin.

My biggest annoyance was blush. It showed up after the fourth coat (1 seal coat, 2 glass layers, and then first seal coat) no matter how fast the coats were applied and on every section of the boat. Perhaps my work environment is too humid.

As far as Raka resin goes, I had the idea it is as thin if not thinner than MAS. I'm sure it kicks off slower, so it should wet out better. Let me know how you like the resin. I am thinking about using it on my next boat.

Ted

: Ted, did you wet out the multiple layers at one time? Did you roll your epoxy
: on or pour and squeegee? I have heard that technique is important with
: this cloth, and I was wondering if you had any unpleasant learning
: experiences.

: I just ordered this cloth for the boat I am building, but I have only used
: open weave cloth in the past. I will be using RAKA resin, which is a bit
: thinner than System 3 but thicker than Mas.

: Ralph Merriman