Hydrocote Resisthane Plus (Gloss)

Don't know if anyone's tried this stuff out; we picked up a can of it after reading a review recently, which reckoned it was good for brushing as well as spraying, and gave the mid-hard kind of finish we wanted. Trouble is, now that we have it, the stuff seems nightmarish to apply - we've tried a number of brushes, but it always seems to go wrong, and ends up crackling (so it looks like shattered glass almost).

Does anyone know what we're doing wrong with this, or how to prevent this from happening to our finish?

Cheers.

Here's what I found, which states that it is NOT suitable for brushing:

http://www.acc-net.com/hydrocote/resist.htm

I would guess that if it is crackling, that the coats are too heavy. The surface of the finish is flashing off, leaving the finish wet underneath. As the lower, wet finish dries, it deforms the surface, leaving the crackle.

As Jason said, it's not suitable for brushing. It needs to be sprayed. Any lacquer, particularly ones with a catalyzer, need to applied in thin coats or else uneven drying will cause problems.

Hrm. That'll teach me to trust these reviews, then; the thrice-blasted thing gave it a good rating for use with a brush, and even the can has a couple of instructions for brushing. No doubting that it's not working out, though. Oh well - time to look for another hard, clear finish...

I really don't think that you can blame the finish, It is the method of application. I have used this product for years with great success. For a time, I used Target Coatings. Personally I have not found a finish that looks good after brush application. It also blows my mind when I see people buying very expensive finishes and or paint and try to apply them with a $2.00 paint brush. If you want to apply a clear finish by hand, I would try a wipe on finish apposed to brush application.
I know that you can get a very nice finish with a brush and varnish but the people that use this method use very expensive brushes and really know how to apply the finish.

I knew it wasn't the fault of the finish; I just wanted to find out if there was any way to proceed without a spray, as we firstly don't have room for it, and secondly, the pieces we're coating are pretty small. We've used clear wipe-on finishes before, and while they worked nicely, we didn't like the hardness of the final finish much; this one had the color and hardness we wanted, so seemed like it'd be ideal.

We've actually been able to get some nice quality finishes now, just by thinning it out a little with water; as Jason mentioned above (thanks!), the thickness of the coating combined with the fast drying speed was resulting in the crackled surface, so we figured that thinning it out would at least help the coating apply in thinner layers - it seems to have worked out very nicely.

And we don't use a cheap brush. As if! No - we're now using cheap hose wrapped around a cheap brush. :-) And it seems to work...

Rob:

You may want to try some retarder as well as thinning with water. You can get the retarder from the place that you purchased the material. Retarder prevents the finish from flashing and drying before it gets the chance to level out. Living in the south west and in the desert, retarder is a must for water base finishes. The only time I do not have to use it is when the temperature is in the 70 degree range. Did not mean to accuse you of using a cheap brush. I seen woodworkers try to apply finish with the wrong tools. They then sit back and try to figure out what happened. I personally prefer to spray all my finishes. Again, living in the S/W, I spray with the shop doors wide open unless it is raining here which is as rare as a albino mountain lion.
Good luch with your woodworking and your finishing.

Honestly, that's what I'd love to do - have a proper shop and all, with everything I'd need to make a proper job of it. But for the time being, we're having to make do with our little apartment, and we have very little money and even less space to play with; if we can make what we already have work, that's ideal, so all advice is very welcome!

Actually, that retarder sounds like it may be a very good idea - we live in the mountains, and it gets very, very dry up here, so the retarder may be exactly what we need. I never knew that would happen with altitude before we moved - live and learn, I suppose...

I use Resisthane all the time and I love it. I've spayed it and brushed it and always get steller results. You just have to use it right.

1. The satin finish is more reliable than the gloss. I've stopped using the gloss. It's too persnickity.

2. If you spray it you have to remember that it's an acrylic, not a polyurethane. I think a lot of people just assume it poly and then have all sorts of trouble. Dilutions for acrylic are different then polyurethane. Also spray nice and close, 6" from the piece.

3. If you're brushing, use a high quality synthetic brush, dilute the finish a lot and put on lots of coats. When I really want to go nuts, I'll start with a medium dilution and work my way up to a high dilution (almost like water in viscosity. When it's that dilute, I'll than lay the finish on really thick on a horizontal service. That means I'm turning the piece a lot and doing only one surface at a time. After about a dozen or more coats, I buff it with 0000 steel wool, then apply Renaissance Wax.

Time consuming, yep. Crazy, definitely. But you'll get a finish that you can fall into and Hydrocote doesn't bother my chemically sensitive wife.