Sanding/buffing/polishing epoxy clear coat top

[blueman]

I ended up clear-coating a wooden vanity top with multiple layers of West Systems epoxy resin and clear coat hardener.

While the clear coat is beautiful and high gloss, no matter how hard I tried, I ended up with some dust specs in the top layer (and according to West tech support that is quite common due to the long drying time).

I was wondering whether I could sand out the dust "pimples" and then by using progressively finer sandpaper or buffing pads restore the gloss finish.

So specifically,

- Can the gloss be restored by sufficiently fine sandpaper grits (I have up to 3000) and/or by buffing?

- Will (hand) sanding alone be sufficient by using sufficiently high grits or do I need to use an orbital buffer/polisher?

- If buffing/polishing is necessary, how would you go about it? (what types of pads and/or polishes and buffing compounds)

Thanks

[SonomaProducts.com]

use an orbital buffer/polisher?

Havn't done it myself but all my reading says buffing is the last step for gloss. I just spray it wet and it looks good enough for me. Search on "buffing lacquer" or something like that and you'll fond lot's o' good info. Epoxy should respond in the same way generally I assume.

[sets]

Just a few notes on this since we are doing a massive polishing mission her e.

We applied the epoxy with a roller and brushed it flat OR sprayed it. Spray ed looks really good.

we did all wet sanding to keep the dust to a minimum... 220 (if necessary), 400 (if necessary), 800 and 1200. Realistically most pieces were ready wit h the last 2. Had to use coarser sandpaper where brush strokes or heavy pon ds had formed. Aside that, the 800 wet worked great to remove the dust dimp les.

Polishing was done with the 3M car polishing compounds and worked great. SL OW RPM worked best for us, fast RPM was leaving a dull finish. Novus works great too... use a buffing tool obviously.

[1tjkeller]

I have a super glaze epoxy resin table top.I did all the wet sanding steps.then used a rubbing compound and stil there is a cloudy finish how do I fix this? Help!

[Leon]

If you used an actual rubbing compound you need to proceed to a polishing compound. Rubbing compound is relatively coarse to remove imperfections.