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Thread: Help - MinWax Satin Polyurethane

  1. #1

    Help - MinWax Satin Polyurethane

    We had an old painted dining room table that I'm refinishing. I stripped the paint off to reveal what I believe is a beautiful Cherry table top. I sanded it, treated it with pre-stain wood conditioner and stained it with an oil-based MinWax stain and the color is beautiful. We love the variation between the heartwood and the lighter sapwood.

    The problem I'm having is with the polyurethane finish. My wife didn't want a glossy finish so I bought the Satin poly. Because it's a dining room table that will see a lot of use, I brushed on 3 coats with very light sanding between each coat to eliminate nibs. For the 4th and final coat, I thinned the poly with 1/3 mineral spirits so any bubbles would pop on their own in the final coat (tip I read on-line)?

    The problem is that the 4 layers of poly finish are now cloudy. After reading through the forums here, I wish I had used Gloss poly and rubbed it out to a satin finish. I don't know what to do now. Is it so cloudy because I thinned the final coat too much? Should I try another coat of satin poly that isn't thinned? Should I try a couple coats of Gloss Wipe-On poly over this? Or will the Gloss poly coats not matter because the finish underneath is cloudy? Do I need to sand off most of the existing poly and start over?

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This is my first furniture refinishing DIY and everything was going so well until the end.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,645
    What kind of mineral spirits did you use? Hopefully, the genuine clear stuff and not the "green" version which is milky looking. If that's what you used, you'll have to strip it off and start over. If you used the good stuff, then I'm stumped; I just don't see how it could have looked good after 3 coats and then suddenly went south when you added a 4th thinned coat. In any case, I don't think adding gloss on top is going to help. Of course you can try it and see - I don't think there's much to lose, but I suspect you are going to have to strip it all off and start over. And if it comes to that, I would use chemical stripper rather than sanding it. Stripper is fast and you won't have the worry of sanding too much in one area and not enough in another. Stripper also will remove the underlying stain. Sanding won't unless you sand down far enough to remove it. I'd strip it and then sand, gently, if needed, to get things even and ready for refinishing.

    You've just learned a hard lesson: Always make up a test board with your complete finishing process before doing it on your project. Many of us have learned that lesson the hard way.

    John

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Coppell, TX
    Posts
    908
    I'm assuming that the MinWax Poly was compatible with the Mineral Spirits and that you checked this before using the tip? MinWax makes oil, oil and water and water based Poly (and you don't state which one was used) so there may be a conflict that caused the cloudiness. If its cloudy now, adding more coats is not going to help - +1 on John's suggestion for stripping and starting over.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    McKinney, TX
    Posts
    2,063
    If you strip and refinish I suggest using gloss for the build coats and satin for only the final one. If you were putting on fairly heavy coats the flattening agent in the finish can sometimes cause a haziness.
    Steve Jenkins, McKinney, TX. 469 742-9694
    Always use the word "impossible" with extreme caution

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