Hi Mark,

I agree with the others, it sounds like some kind of contaminant. What are you using to measure and mix your epoxy? I had the same orange peel effect on my first kayak when I used syringes for measuring. The large syringes I was using had some kind of silicone lubricant inside. Also, what kind of sand paper are you using. Some kinds of sand paper contain stearates to prevent clogging. I don't know if this causes a problem with epoxy, but I know it can cause problems with some kinds of polyurethane finishes.

These next paragraphs are from old posts:

I use MAS too; it's great for glass wet out, but a bit thin for fill coats. To avoid drips in the first place try "pre-promoting" your epoxy when doing fill coats. To do this, mix your resin with about 20% of the hardener required and let it sit for about half an hour. Then mix in the rest of the hardener, and apply your fill coat. Your epoxy won't get hard while it's sitting there with a portion of the hardener, it'll just get thicker. I do this with MAS and it works perfectly. It also requires fewer coats to fill the weave.

I don't like foam rollers, it seems like they just create microbubles (foam) in the epoxy. I use a short-bristle roller cover like the one that Rick (vk1nf) suggested a while back. The center tube is plastic and the bristles are semi-stiff nylon about 1/8" long, no foam or nap. The bristles seem to push the resin into the glass and keep the glass tight against the wood. I still use a squeegee to get rid of excess epoxy, but with these roller covers there usually isn't much excess. I buy them at Home Depot as adhesive rollers, but you could probably find something similar at other stores. These rollers don't create foam unless you press hard and roll back and forth quickly. I use them for glass wet-out and fill coats as well. They do leave some bubbles, but they are big superficial bubbles that are tipped-off easily. I have never experienced bubbles underneath the glass while using these rollers.

Pedro Almeida