Can you put too many coats on?

Doing a table with Cabots Carbothane (Satin). 1st coat done by hand.

Can you put too many on? I would like to get some debth to the finish if possible and was thinking of 3 coats and then finishing with a couple of spray cans of gloss. Very little experience in this.

Is it better to use something else over the polyurthane?

Cheers

SB

They say if you put on to many coats of satin , it tends to go cloudy , in practice i would put on a couple of clear first , followed by a couple of coats of satin . Not sure about the clear on top , you either want a satin finish or clear finish . I am sure more info will come your way .

Paul , k

It's a desk and was baiscly after satin so as not to show too manty scratches. Also was trying to get some debth to finish. Hence trying something over the top of 3 of satin. If necessary will stop at 3 of satin.

Cheers and thanks

Is it a dark timber or light timber as dark timbers do tend to highlight scratches , the satin will help , As far as the depth you would like to accomplish poly seems to do that easily , with only a few coats . In the far distant past wow i can still remember it , :cool: i have used u-beaut EEE- ULTRA SHINE to flatten out the finish which will improve the depth and finished off with traditional wax two coats , that seemed to work quite well , and you have the extra protection of the wax . It all depends on how far you want to take it .

Cheers Paul , k

If only i could remember what happened yesterday never mind today, thats another adventure . :2tsup:

It's camphor and will be used as a desk. So I like the ideal to finish in a wax just was not sure if you did that sort of thing over Carbothane.

Cheers

I was shown by a cabinet maker how he got the most out of using Tung oil and wax finish. So I attempted the five coats of refined tung oil rubbed with 2000 wet and dry with white-spirit as the lubricant, and then I applied many coats of wax that were polished using an electric buffing machine. The result was not exactly as I had seen in the cabinet makers workshop.
I concluded that after each coat and sanding I hadn't fastidiously cut back and cleaned the surface enough. I also concluded that the waxing couldn't alter what had not been created. While very durable the end result, which is lovely, does not have significant depth.
Having this experience I decided that my next project had to have more rubbing down until I could see the reflectance increase with every application. Then only will the wax, which by the way because it was considerably cheaper I decided to make, will (I think) impart its lustre.

ivanearl

SB

the deepest finish I can recall seeing was on a table displayed as part of a Woodworkers Guild (?) display at the ABC Ultimo about 15 years ago.
The maker was there and said that the finish was 7 coats (from memory) of tung oil based floor finish rubbed back.

I finished a table I made last year with sanding sealer, oil based grain filler and 4 coats of Feast Watson satin polyurathane, brushed on and scuff sanding between coats. The top coat was cut back to about 1200 grit and then pollished. In retrospect I think I would have been happier if I had applied 1 or 2 additional coats before starting the cutting back and polishing

Ian

What did you polish with?

I have purchased some E Shine and some wax but never used previously.

Cheers

SB

Cutting back was done with wet and drive (starting at 400) lubricated with soapy water

I was working at dad's and grabbed off his shelf what looked like the best option
I think it was canarba wax,
I then used a power buffer

Just put the time in sand between coats and everything will fall into place , i have no doubt the finish you achieve will be what you want it to be . When you start rubbing it down with the higher grade wet and dry . what you do is take off all the high spots within the finish this will give it a higher sheen and greater depth . I guess it is just like a mirror , and if you use eee ultra shine it will take it to another level ,but you will have a much higher sheen though not as high as full gloss . I can honestley say the last time i used poly was over two years ago , and hopefully will send pics to give you an idea of what you can achieve .

paul , k :U

This is a slab top finished using poly , four coats with the with a fifth coat sprayed on . It was left to cure for at least a week before sanding with wet and dry . Even though it was a satin finish i wanted a slightly higher sheen and to accomplish this i used EEE ultra shine and was extremely happy with the finish . I then applied the traditional wax two very thin coats and this made it even better . :2tsup: Something i always do before using any product i am not familiar with is read up on it , ring up the technical department of that particular product if need to and most of all i give it a test run and see if it suitable for the project at hand . I might as well go for three in a row now, a polishers handbook by Neil Ellis is very infomative and deals with all types of finishes .

Regards Paul , k