Applying the mix

[Melle.17]

I am going to be applying “the mix” to some of my wood soon. I know proportions but cannot remember time frame. How long should I wait between coats? Consider the average temp is about 70 right now.


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[tony.latham]

I am going to be applying “the mix” to some of my wood soon. I know proportions but cannot remember time frame. How long should I wait between coats? Consider the average temp is about 70 right now.


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You don't. You want the wood to soak in as much as possible.

Some folks mix it as thin as 25% poly. When I use it, it's mixed at about 50% and finished off after drying with a coat of 100%.

But for really sealing the deal with wood... I use epoxy.

Tony

[Melle.17]

I am going to be applying “the mix” to some of my wood soon. I know proportions but cannot remember time frame. How long should I wait between coats? Consider the average temp is about 70 right now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You don't. You want the wood to soak in as much as possible.

Some folks mix it as thin as 25% poly. When I use it, it's mixed at about 50% and finished off after drying with a coat of 100%.

But for really sealing the deal with wood... I use epoxy.

Tony

So basically I do the first thinned with 50 followed immediately with 75 then immediately with full poly? No need to wait between applications?


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[tony.latham]

No need to wait between applications?

Put the 50% mixture on until it is saturated (recheck after thirty minutes).

After it's dry --and it will take a long time-- put the straight stuff on.

Tony

[Pmullen503]

If you can smell the solvent, it's not fully dried.

I went with 25%, then 50%, then 75%, and 100% a day between coats and maybe a week after the last coat the solvent smell was gone.

[working on it]

If you can smell the solvent, it's not fully dried.

I went with 25%, then 50%, then 75%, and 100% a day between coats and maybe a week after the last coat the solvent smell was gone.

* I also went with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, but did two coats at each percentage, but with a difference in drying time. Since I was building mine at another location, and had to do it when I could fit it in between other projects at that location (50 miles from home, on weekends only, often being unable to work on it at all), I did my "mix" and Poly coatings in full sun, and between 106 and 110 degrees in one afternoon.

* As you might guess, each coat dried fast (flashing over within minutes), so I completed the eight applications in just a few hours. Then, I rolled it back into the shop, where it cured for a week, before I painted over the poly with two coats of acrylic enamel (two types, in different spots: grey tractor paint on lower front and sides, reflective/aluminized silo paint on top front, roof, and rear hatch). Again, it was in full sun and 100-110 degrees. The black Rustoleum edging paint, several layers over exposed plywood grain (already thoroughly polyurethaned), was applied a week later, this time in the shop.

starting the grey and silver topcoats.jpg (105.89 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

* I re-covered the silo paint a year later, at home in my garage, to smooth out some brush marks (and contact dings on the hatch), but otherwise the "mix", poly, paint has been good for all this time, perhaps due to being in my garage 99% of the time since 2012. I never had to resort to covering it all with bedliner as I had planned, in case the paint failed or separated from the poly undercoats. No sanding was done prior to painting, nor between coats, just wiping the dry surface with thinner, first, on the plywood from Home Depot (it was listed as pre-sanded ACX).