: Hi Mike and Glen'

: Since you're not going to let the epoxy set up anyway, you don't
: really need "real" peel ply, fabric store nylon fabric
: will do the same thing and it's a bunch cheaper.

: Nylon will conform to slight curves easily on it's own, and like
: glass if it's laid on a slight diagonal it'll probably cover
: half the boat in one layer, make it lots less tedious than using
: 12" widths you'd get using towels too.

: Still a squeegie works fine and is a heck of alot less messy. Can't
: imagine trying to have either a pile of epoxy soaked shop towels
: or a big pile of nylon fabric soaked in epoxy in the shop. What
: would you do with it? Anywhere you put it, it'll bond to
: anything it's put in once the resin sets.

: Bill H.

Nylon fabric style peel-ply usually stays on the layup until it's set, then gets peeled off - that's why you use that particular fabric - the nylon doesn't bond with the epoxy so it separates nicely taking the excess with it. No sticky mess to worry about seeing as it's set by the time you separate the ply from the laminate.

I've mostly used the acetate style peel-ply though - a very thin, non-elastic, clear plastic sheet with many small perforations. It's conceptually similar to the plastic bags we get fresh bread rolls in from our supermarket bakeries here, just on a much finer scale.

The stuff I had doesn't do compound curves at all, so would be no good for kayaks. It was brilliant inside a vacuum bag for making glider wings though.
There's probably an elastic version out there somewhere that would work. Really you need to vac-bag to get the most out of it though, and that's kinda tricky with half a boat. It'd be doable if you were that fanatical about the tiny bit of weight you might save..

If you could get perforated pallet wrap it could work, but I'm not sure why such a product would even exist!

In terms of minimising waste products coming out of the shop, a squeegie would win without any doubt.

Simeon.