Sanding into weave

Posted by Mike on Jan 10, 2007

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....the schooner has moved from the epoxy room, out the window, around the house, and into the garage. I have all three pieces of glass down and two fill coats. After the first fill coat I did some scraping to remove, or at least try to minimize the high spots from the drips. Then, after the second coat I took the ROS out w/120 grit and put the sander on the lowest power setting and did a little light sanding. I'm going to do a 3rd coat this weekend I hope. Anyway, my question is...how do you know when you have sanded into the weave? I'm guessing it gets sort of fuzzy in appearance? Being as I can't see into the glass, I have no idea how close or far I am away from it. What I've read is that 3 coats usually should fill the weave, but in an effort to get everything smooth, I am fearful of going into the weave. The only downside I see of adding too much epoxy is that it makes the boat a little heavier, but how much heavier is 6 coats as opposed to 3? maybe 6 - 12 oz? At least I will be less fearfull of damaging the glass when sanding. I will just take one less beer along with me when paddling to compensate for the excess weight. Here's a pic of the light sanding I did last night. Any comments are welcome, of course!

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e47/19283/Boat74.jpg

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