: I'm ready to cut some plywood to put together a S&G but I am concerned about
: spraying glue onto the plywood. Will the glue (that holds the pattern
: down) seal the wood so that the epoxy will not soak in? Is it a better
: idea to trace the pattern shape onto the wood?
: What are your thoughts and experience?
: thanks

various strategies: (fairly obvious, but typically do all marking or gluing on the back)

• - chuck a needle in the end of an exacto knife or pinvise and use that to prick thru the plan into the panel, light panel at a low angle and connect the shadowed dots w/ a med hb (not hard) pencil – use pencil as can see, erase, or change easily if necessary.

• -put very thin coats on the PAPER rather than the ply so that
  the paper just tacks down and i doubt that the tiny amt of spray glue that transfers to the ply will have much affect. Regard it as making your own masking tape – and we don’t worry abt tack transfer of that too much. The problem is that cutting thru the paper with the saw etc dislodges the paper, so score thru the paper with a razor knife just on or touching the line prior to sawing, so the important part doesn’t get too dislodged – and even if dislodged, can be place accurately back because of the previous razor knife score lines.

• -A second variation is to use skim coats of water soluble glue for the plan tacking. From this you get a minor to fair bit of wrinkling, but as even complex pattern shapes have simple curves the wrinkling is not as important as the pattern staying place. Then wet and remove the patterns, let ply dry and continue

• -a third very simple strategy is to sealcoat the panels prior to any cutting ( espec if stain 1st of course). Then you are free to glue, or sprayglue to your hearts content (depending of course how continuous the sealcoat) on the front of the panel as well as the back.

• - and of course if you do it on strippers, do it before last sanding so that you can actually strip/wash/abrade all potential evidence away before glassing.
  

mick