Hello all,

Not sure where the post I just typed went so I'm retyping again...

I know that Nick uses a squeegee to apply epoxy, and in surfboard building videos it seems everyone is using a squeegee. Well, Nick wrote the book, and has done probably 50 times the epoxying I have, but I just wanted to throw this out and see if anyone else is using a foam roller for the expoxy application as opposed to the squeegee method. In my humble opinion, and you know what they say about opinions, using a foam roller to apply the epoxy uses less epoxy for the wet-out. I'm building wood surfboards and getting a much lighter weight than other guys building the same size board with the same materials. Of course even between species of wood there are a lot of variations in weight, but I believe by rolling on the epoxy as thin as possible with a foam roller I may be saving a bit on weight. After the first coat I still have the weave pattern showing, but the cloth is saturated fully. The second coat fills the weave. The first coat when cured almost looks matte because of the weave showing through. There are no "shiny" spots where the resin is thicker- a very even application. With the squeegee I seem to get a thicker first coat, and have difficulty getting an even coat. I also often get foam in the resin. Maybe I'm doing something wrong with the squeegee method? Anyway, with the roller it takes a lot longer. I use about 5 pumps of resin for each batch, and pour it out in a thin line across the kayak or surfboard, and then roll it out with very short back and forth strokes of the roller. It probably takes two or three times as long as squeegeeing, but in my opinion it gives a lot more control of how much resin you put on.

So just for discussion, do you roll or squeegee? Your thoughts on either/or are welcome. I'm sure there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.