Table Top Finish Poll

[Mike Willeson]

We bought an inexpensive used kitchen table for our daughter. The top is a little rough, but otherwise the table is good. I would like to sand the top and apply either interior varnish or wipe on poly. Those are the only two choices

Which do you recommend?

[Prashun Patel]

A simple wipe-on poly is a good choice. It's easy, relatively low odor (compared to other oil-based varnishes) and very durable.

If this is indeed an inexpensive, non-heirloom piece, then the minor aesthetic benefits of an alkyd or phenolic varnish over a poly may not be worth the extra hassle or cost to obtain them.

[Rick Mosher]

If I couldn't spray this is what I would use, it does have an amber color to it so not ideal for everything.
Behlens Rock Hard Varnish

[Kent A Bathurst]

If I couldn't spray this is what I would use, it does have an amber color to it so not ideal for everything.
Behlens Rock Hard Varnish

Works great. Reduce to wipe-on consistency, use Famous Blue Shop Towels; coat, wait an hour, coat, wait an hour, coat, come back tomorrow.

IF the surface seems a bit rough from dust particles, then very light sanding to knock them flat, use 3M Gold 320 or 400.

Then go again, 3 wipe-on coats generaly has the same film build as one bruch-on coat.

[John TenEyck]

I'd use General Finishes WB EnduroVar. It goes on great with a foam brush. It is chemically very durable, on par with most solvent based products. It dries in an hour, can be recoated in 2 to 4 hours, and fully cures in about a week. You could apply 3 coats in one day and have the table back in service in 7. With a OB varnish, you're looking at 3 to 4 weeks.

John

[Prashun Patel]

John-
Like my conversion to Arm-R-Seal, you are gradually convincing me to switch to EnduroVar.

How do you find the color, though? Do you find it lifeless?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

John-
Like my conversion to Arm-R-Seal, you are gradually convincing me to switch to EnduroVar.

How do you find the color, though? Do you find it lifeless?

I think that it is one of the better looking water based polys for looks.

http://generalfinishes.com/professio...r#.U9_OtESE1XY

I prefer the look of Waterlox, but, in general, this has a good enough look for most things and it is ready to use much faster than Waterlox.

[John TenEyck]

Hi Prashun,

No, I don't find EnduroVar to be lifeless, but it does not add the same amber color that Waterlox would. Here's a little cherry bedside cabinet I made to match an existing one.

IMG_3482.JPG

The original was sprayed with lacquer and had aged for around 20 years. I matched the color by spraying the new cabinet with a dye/shellac toner and then EnduroVar SG tweaked with a little Transtint Medium Brown to adjust the color.

Here's what it looks like on some spalted maple:

IMG_2918.JPG

As you can see it's essentially water clear. You can easily tweak it to an tint desired with a few drops of Transtint w/o changing the clarity at all. It gives me a lot more control over color than traditional varnishes. Durability wise it's excellent, on par with the best conventional varnishes I tested it against and better than some. Waterlox was not one of them, however, as I've never used it.

EnduroVar brushes beautifully with a foam brush, but is a little more difficult for me to spray than GF's Hi Perf. Poly. But if I thin it 5% with water then it does spray pretty well through my HVLP conversion gun, as you can see in the photo above.

John