Greg and John,

The weave on the cloth has a tendency to telegraph through the fill coats, meaning that the epoxy used in fill coats doesn't just fill the lower parts in the glass but also sits on top of the strands. After a couple of fill coats give the boat a light sand taking care not to sand into the weave, just sanding the epoxy sitting on the strands of cloth off. Your next fill coat will be smooth as a baby's bum. It might take one more fill coat to get it just right, but sanding off the telegraphed weave makes a huge difference.

Hope it works for ya!

Ken

I recently purchased an introductory fiberglass/resin kit from system three
: in preparation for an Arctic Tern I hope to purchase in several weeks. I
: used epoxy for the first time today and had several questions: 1) On my
: initial coat to laminate the glass to a piece of plywood I used a roller
: and then squeeged the excess out. On the second coat to fill the weave
: should i have used the squeege or merely rolled it on and foam brushed it
: to eliminate bubbles?

: 2) After my second coat over the glass the weave was still not filled. Does
: it mormally take more than two coats to fill the weave or am I doing
: something wrong?

: 3) at the edges of the fiberglass strands seemed to detach and float on the
: plywood surface after squeeging (instructions said use firm pressure).
: this was quite messy and i would think it would be totally unacceptable
: when building the boat. was i applying too much pressure on the squeegee?

: 4) I have read the Epoxy Book that came with the kit but I still have many
: questions about its use. Do the Pygmy instructions provide more detail?

: thanks in advance