Having applied fiberglass to the bottom of the kayak, it was time to apply epoxy to fill the weave, creating a smooth surface for final finishing with varnish (to protect the epoxy from UV destruction). For the fiberglass, I used a scraper to apply a thin coat of epoxy. For the first fill coat, I used a foam roller to apply the epoxy, and it went quite smoothly. I was happy with the uniformity of the resulting coat. I was concerned about the amount of wasted epoxy left in the foam roller when I was done with the application, so I decided to use a chip brush to apply the second filler coat. Although the brushed coat seemed to use less epoxy and it left a smooth coat, it also had two problematic consequences. First, the inexpensive chip brushes tend to shed bristles; this is no surprise, but I did have to stay alert to remove the bristles so they did not set in the epoxy to become permanent features of the kayak. The second problem is that the brush left a thick layer that had a tendency to slump and drip on the more vertical surfaces of the kayak. This will require quite a bit of sanding to make fair. I plan to return to the roller for future applications of expoy filler and the coats of varnish. I will use the brushes for areas that are not amenable to rolling, such as the areas around the coaming.
I also learned why being generous can sometimes leave one in a bit of a pickle. During the construction class, the instructor suggested that people share epoxy bottles so as to reduce the number of epoxy stations that were needed. I volunteered to let my adjacent colleague draw from my bottles. The kayak kit comes with a gallon of epoxy, and that sounded nearly infinite to me. Well, I ran out today, and I am not yet done. I ordered a half-gallon kit, but it will take time to ship from the East coast, so my construction is temporarily stalled. I guess I can go back and sand down some of those drips.
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