Having a Little Trouble With Topcoat !st Time Using a Brush

[John TenEyck]

Well I'm not quite as anal as Kent, but I do vacuum well and run my air filter for a couple of hours before I finish. But I still finish that day if I want to. Any remaining airborne dust is micron size and too small to cause nubs in the finish. To me, the most important thing is to go take a shower and change your cloths before finishing. I can't begin to count the number of times saw dust and hair (and I don't have much) has fallen onto my nicely finished piece; doesn't happen much anymore.

But I think those nubs look like bubbles more than dust. It should be easy to tell if they are by looking at them with a magnifying glass. Regardless, a brush is still a poor choice with a wiping varnish. The name says how it was intended to be applied - "wiping" varnish. You will never get a bubble if you wipe it on. Then you know any nubs you find must be dust or hair.

John

[Prashun Patel]

I am with john. Brushing doesnt require more care than you have already provided. Try wiping it.

[Frank Martin]

As with many of us here I do woodworking in a garage. One tip I learned sometime ago to minimize the dust prior to finishing is use a leaf blower to get all the dust out as some of it cannot really be accessed using the vacuum. I do this after getting as much of the dust as I can get using the vacuum to minimize dust out the door. Then I start the leaf blower and the air cleaner at the same time and do a good cleanup for about 15-20 minutes. The garage looks much nicer and cleaner afterwards. Then I leave the air cleaner on auto for 2 hours and do the finishing next day.

[Scott Holmes]

Kent & Alan,

Cleaning your brush between sessions is NOT suspending it in MS. What I see looks like very small partially cured finish specs from the brush. Clean the bush very well; then suspend it in MS. No need to go to the soap and water steps.

Otherwise you get little specs of finish that can't be seen in the wet finish; then, YOU SEE them when it dries.

[Ole Anderson]

Every once in a while I really clean my shop, not going so far as to use water, but just to get the dust. And not just on horizontal surfaces. With the door closed, the furnace off, ambient filter running, the DC running with all gates open and wearing an N95 mask, I get out my compressed air blow gun and blow off the walls, my cluttered workbench and shelves and all of the tools on the walls. Amazing how much dust clings to the walls and your tools. If you are really anal, come back an hour later, vacuum the floor and do it again.

[Alan Gan]

The name says how it was intended to be applied - "wiping" varnish. You will never get a bubble if you wipe it on.

John

I am with john. Try wiping it.

Okay this is where I am getting confused. I do think the newer cans of GF Arm-R-Seal does say wiping, then there is the GF Gel Wipe ON.

I am just missing something here, I cannot see being able to wipe off any excess when using the Arm-R-Seal it gets tacky so fast the rag would stick to the Varnish. Now I did try a little of the Gel and it can be wiped off with no issue.

Are you mixing the wording of the ability to apply with a rag (wiping) with the ability to wipe on and wipe off with a rag (wipe on)?

Sorry I just am not getting this...

[Kent A Bathurst]

Kent & Alan,

Cleaning your brush between sessions is NOT suspending it in MS. What I see looks like very small partially cured finish specs from the brush. Clean the bush very well; then suspend it in MS. No need to go to the soap and water steps.

Otherwise you get little specs of finish that can't be seen in the wet finish; then, YOU SEE them when it dries.

Yeah - I misstated that bit.

I suspend it until an hour or so later, then do exactly what you said.

[Alan Gan]

Well with Scott's help I have found the problem, at least I am pretty sure.

I had a clean enviroment and took care to follow process on applying the Top Coat. A little embarrased if this does turn out to be the issue, will not know for sure until I Top Coat the other cabinet.. The culprit appears to be the rag I used to squeeze out the excess MS before dipping into the Arm-R-Seal. It was not dust free, every other rag I used was fine excepy this one, such an obvious thing to miss.

Now with all that said, what do I do at this point to get the majority of the nubs cleared up?

What would some of you do with this, it is not bad enough at all to resand and start over, just would like it smoothed out a little better. Ideas???

[John TenEyck]

Well there's your problem Alan - you're trying to wipe them off. Both of those products are intended to be wiped on - period. You don't wipe them off. As you said, they can set up very quickly, doubly fast if you try to wipe them off.

Wipe it on as uniformly as you can. Don't go back over it and don't wipe any off.

For what it's worth, as much as I like GF's products I don't use the Urethane Topcoat any more. It failed miserably in some chemical durability testing I did. Arm-R-Seal, on the other hand, is resistant to almost anything you would likely put on it in use.

John

[Alan Gan]

Well there's your problem Alan - you're trying to wipe them off. Both of those products are intended to be wiped on - period. You don't wipe them off. As you said, they can set up very quickly, doubly fast if you try to wipe them off.

Wipe it on as uniformly as you can. Don't go back over it and don't wipe any off.John

No John, I never attempt to wipe off the Arm-R-Seal... But the Gel Topcoat states in the directions to apply a liberal coat of the Gel then with another clean rag wipe off the excess evenly with the grain and leave just a wet looking surface.

[John TenEyck]

Like I said, I've never seen a cotton rag that was lint free. Anyway, a razor blade works well to cut off nubs. Takes a little practice to get the right technique to shave off the nub w/o doing damage to the surrounding area, but it works well. Afterwards, a gentle scuff sanding with 320 grit should bring everything to a uniform level. Then apply your last topcoat - with a paper towel or microfiber cloth.

John

[Scott Holmes]

To add to John's technique...

What I use is; either a razor blade (single edge) or better yet a razor knife blade. It last forever; the blade is sharp and stiff. I use them as a mini scraper. Just hold the blade between your fingers almost vertical and scrape away.

[Kent A Bathurst]

What would some of you do with this, it is not bad enough at all to resand and start over, just would like it smoothed out a little better. Ideas???

Prior advice is spot-on.......

However -

Like a monk in a hair shirt, when I realize I have done something dumb, I will generally take a deep breath, and sand it back.

Not only to correct the problem , but to get things back to the starting gate where I can run the race again - start to finish - and do it right. The experience is a training exercise for me.