Hi Pat,

The foam rollers seem to leave bubbles no matter how you do it.  I found that after rolling on the epoxy for the second coat, using a foam brush to lightly smooth over the wet epoxy ("tipping out" in the manual) works really well to eliminate the bubbles.  Just very lightly sand with your ROS between the second and third coat, especially on the fiber glass cloth areas.  I hand sanded the two stems, it doesn't take much to go through the weave.  On the bottom and garboard planks I took just the points off the glass, you could still feel the cloth after I quit sanding.  After vacuuming and wiping down the second coat with denatured alcohol I applied the third coat, tipped it out with the brush and it was just about perfect (smooth and filled the remaining weave) when it cured except for a fly and couple of mosquitoes who couldn't resist flying into the epoxy.

Also left another reply on your previous topic.

Byron

Byron,

Glad to hear your epoxy went on well. I put the first two coats on last night and am about to sand for the third. I will have to be careful on some areas with the glass as some didnt seem to get much of a second coat. My mom and dad dropped by while I was epoxying the first coat in the glass and my mom decide to help with spreading. I think we may have used differing pressure because some of the weave had differing amounts of resin in them. Ultimately, I would put a third coat on prior to sanding but I need to sand out the bubbles. I tried smoothing the bubbles out with the roller with limited success. Not sure why. I suspect if the heat starts setting up the epoxy early, it might cause stickieness that would pull bubbles, sort of like overworking interior paint.

 My biggest concern now is when I glued the frames in, and reflipped it over for the epoxy work, I found the frame had altered the side to side balance. With the slight imperfection in the stem and stern alignment, I have started to think of her as name as corkscrew, not because I will be serving drinks on her decks.

 Looking forward to getting the third coat done. If I take a picture, I will try to post.

 I will be careful sanding, and let you know how I do, I am also going to do smaller batches of epoxy and see if my rolling is more bubble free.

 Thanks

 Pat

Ok, sanded the skerry hull and applied the 3rd coat. I must stink at that because I got plenty of bubbles again, small epoxy mixes, spread out and plenty of bubbles I couldnt stop making. I ran a chip brush over the bubbles and they smoothed out nicely.

 I used a 3' chip brush on the whole hull!!

 took some time but I didnt know a better way. Certainly the coat was thicker than rolling on but it should be good for a more thorough sanding next.

Pat