Can you put too many coats on?

[SuperB15]

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

[paul k]

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

[SuperB15]

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

[paul k]

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 , 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 .

[SuperB15]

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

[ivanearl]

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

[ian]

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

[SuperB15]

Ian

What did you polish with?

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

Cheers

SB

[ian]

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

[paul k]

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

[paul k]

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 . 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