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I am an amateur woodworker and I recently finished a cherry coffee table and to finish it I applied 15 coats of hand applied varnish (50/50 varnish/mineral spirits). I then applied a coat of wax.
The bottom line is this. It looks great, but I am not happy with the durability of the table top so I am thinking of stripping the wax and applying a polyurethane over the varnish on the table top. Hopefully this will provide better protection to the top. I will then rub out the top to match the rest of the table. Is this the way to go or or is there flaws in my thinking? Is there a better way to go? Any suggetions/recommendations to this newbie would be greatly appreciated. TIA -Phil
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Polyurethane is a type of varnish. It's frankly a little hard to imagine that 15 coats of anything will not provide enough protection. What are you doing with the table? Are you sure that your expectations or notions about what finishes can and can't do are realistic?
If you used a 50/50 varnish/solvent mixture then the fifteen coats will be about as good as it gets. What kind of varnish did you use? Spar varnish in a 50/50 mix should have given incredible build and plenty of protection. For that matter any other varnish should have as well.
Something sounds out-of-whack.
*Phil,I agree with Charles but, I would like to add that assuming that you used a true varnish it will take anywhere from 4 - 6 months to cure depending on climate. Varnish will never totally cure because it is elastic. Since we don't know how your definition of "recent" and the specifics of the durability problems it would be difficult for me to make further comment. I will say that even polyurethane will scratch. FWIW.Dano
*What "varnish" did you use for your 15 coats? Unless you went on a search for non-poly, you probably have poly on it anyway. In my experience you must go to a reputable paint store and ask for non-poly to find it. All that said, you have enough varnish/protection on it without adding a layer of plastic.
*A friend who is a profissional finisher and I tested the build on brush applied full strength McCloskey varnish compared to a wiped on 50/50 mixture of the same varnish and naphtha.The wet film thickness and the dry fill thickness indicated that it took between 3-5 coats of wipeon to equal one coat of full strength brush on. This was without sanding between coats. We did the test three times to get the results. The wet film thickness was measured with a gauge used for that and the dry was peeled off and a measured with a thickness gauge.On average, it would probably be not to far off to figure 4 coats of wipeon to one coat of brushon. I generally use 8-10 on my projects.
*Good information. Thanks. I had wondered if 8-10 coats was overkill on my part.
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