do you pre-coat prior to laminating?

[sluggo]

My general impression is that the majority of wooden kayak builders pre-coat the wood just prior to laminating the fiberglass. If I'm not mistaken, many of the manuals for kayak building from Guillemot, Laughing Loon, Pygmy and probably others endorse this concept. On the other hand, CanoeCraft doesn't recommend this (I don't think it even mentions it). Since the same principles are used for both boats but only the hull shape is different, I find this to be a bit odd.

[Glen Smith]

I didn't check any of the poll boxes because I sometimes precoat and other times I don't. If I have some hairline cracks I prefer to precoat so the epoxy fills the voids rather than risking having air bubbles.

This question goes along with "rudder or no rudder". Some builders prefer to precoat and some don't see any utility for it.

[Rehd Brown]

I always precoat.
The simple reason: it reduces ( I hate to say eliminates ) the chances of 'Out-Gassing' under the glass application. I have heard some folks say that they Still get a few bubbles, but, I have had good luck doing it this way. This sorta goes hand in hand with working in declining tempuratures. One can't always pick and choose.. but, if possible, it's probably the best combination of conditions to work in.
When pre-coating, I always use a squeegee so that I can pull off ALL the excess epoxy. I only want to seal the wood and not build a heavy coat of epoxy.

Rehd

[sluggo]

When I built first boat, a Pygmy Tern 14, I precoated with epoxy. On the Freedom I wasn't going to, opting to go the CanoeCraft route. However, based on the fiberglass I'm going to use (see http://bearmountainboats.com/phpbb2/vie ... php?p=1838), and due to the small gaps I have on the hull, I think I'm going to precoat.

Rehd, you're absolutely right in using the squeegee. On the Tern I precoated there were areas where a bit of epoxy "pooled", which gave a slightly raised surface. It wasn't a big deal in itself, but made for some difficulties in sanding the fill coats because some areas were a bit higher...

[Mac]

For those of you that precoat, how long do you let the epoxy cure before you apply the fiberglass?

[Tim Eastman]

For those of you that precoat, how long do you let the epoxy cure before you apply the fiberglass?

Actually I let mine go until it needed to be sanded. Otherwise there were all kinds of nubbies on the hull that would catch the cloth. (Even after raising the wood grain with water for the final sanding).

It worked out just fine.

[Bryan Hansel]

I do it both ways. The decision comes down to how lazy I'm feeling and how much epoxy I want to expose myself to.