clear finish - help me!

[gilbo]

I have used clear estapols before as a finish, but I am often disappointed with the slight yellowness that develops. Is there an alternative that will give me a hard finish, that will not discolour.

[durwood]

The timber will always have a change in colour no matter what clear you put on it, even wetting timber changes the colour.

Having said that most normally available clears from hardware/paint stores are made to a market. Crystal clear clears cost the paint companies extra to refine so most have a yellow tinge of some sort.

The best clears are used on motor vehicles, they have to be not only water clear but remain that way under sunlight, something most house hold clears don't. They are applied over colours which have to be matched to the other panels and the clear is designed to have minimum effect on the final colour. A 4 litre of this clear looks like water in the tin its so clear.

If you think this is the answer, take a small piece of wood (sanded ready to go) you intend to clear to a panel beater and ask if the painter can spray a bit of clear on it after he finishes a job and before he throws away the clear left in the gun. A good guy would do it for nothing as he is dumping the material anyway.

Being two pack it can't be kept long and he normally would make up enough so he had some left over and didn't run out.

[JB]

As said, it's not just the finish but also the wood that changes colour.

Is your current project in pine or another light timber? If it's a dark timber the yellowing of the finish wont be much of an issue.

Durwood, are these extera clear clears only available as two packs? Are they classed as lacquers or something else?

I guess they also have UV blockers in them to stop the paint underneath changing colour?

[durwood]

The ones I mentioned are 2 pack Acrylic Urethanes which is similar in performance to what I assumed the Estapols Gilbo was refering to. They are close to Polyurtethanes but are not quite as hard so they can be buffed and polished if need be.

Any decent exterior clear has UV inhibitors in it, as its usually the clear that cops the UV rays. Colours only have to be stable (non fading etc)

The only lacquers which are similar to these ones are Acrylic Lacquers. They stand up neally as well and the easy way to pick them is to test with Acrylic lacquer solvent they redissolve the 2 pack ones it has no effect.

[la Huerta]

i had the same problem when finishing somespeakers once, the bloody colour looked honey instead of clear, i was recommended to use feast watson satinproof and the results where perfect, been using it ever since...