Hi Nancy,

When I sand the hull in between coats of epoxy, I will wet sand with 180 grit waterproof paper and then go over the surface quickly with dry 80 grit to rough it up for better adhesion. Prior to painting I will wet sand the epoxy with 180, 240 and finish with 320 grit.

Use a spray bottle for wetting the surface. You don't need to flood the area. The surface needs to be wet enough to float away the dust - if you start making a "paste" you need a bit more water. Rinse the sandpaper once in a while. A sponge is good for wiping up as you go. I use a piece of the blue styrene foam as a sanding block -its light and provides a good grip.

When hand sanding, I preferred to wet sand over dry sand because it removes material quicker with less dust. As you dry sand, the paper immediately starts to trap the dust getting progressively more clogged until the abrasive is full and it is polishing more that it is cutting. With wet sanding you can feel/hear the sandpaper cutting and you can easily tell when it loses it's edge and needs replacing. You will be surprised how much sanding can be done with a single piece of paper if it is kept clean.

Wet sanding is typically done with the finer grits because finer grits clog quickly otherwise. Wet sanding with "coarse" grits actually works very well.

The choice of grit size is the choice of: fewer large grits - each taking a big bite or many smaller grits - taking many smaller bites. With harder materials, "more smaller" grits are better (look at the teeth on a wood saw compared to those on a metal cutting saw). Epoxy is quite hard - relative to wood that is. Large grit (80) is a good choice for dry sanding because buy the time it is clogged it has also lost its edge. For rough wet sanding epoxy, 180 grit works for me -it seems to be a good compromise between grit size and quantity.

A power sander does a heck of a job but some times I still prefer to hand sand. Kinda therapeutic, no noise, no vibration - good exercise, like the Karate Kid - wax on - wax off ;-)

Try a couple of sheets of 180 wet - see how you like it.

I hope this helps.

Hank