Need some advice on finishing my table.

Chem E here. I deal with medium to ultra high solids functional polymers. My responsibilities include, but are not limited to; Aerospace, automotive, defense, and healthcare. 
Find a distributor of Sikkens furniture or wood finishes. It is expensive, but very well worth the investment.  You will appreciate the long life this product provides.

My table was built by the same folks. Good quality. Congrats. I put 5 coats of Marine Spar Varnish on mine. LOWES carries a true marine grade clear glossy varnish. I think its about $16 per quart and I used 2. FWIW. When I get home I'll post a pic.

I did not know about Sikkens when I started to do my table.  It sure would have saved me a lot of work.  I put 5 coats on it and sanded with 320 in between.  I am happy with the way it turned out though. Yes, it was work, but I am just an old retired guy and time is something I have lots of.  And it was the first time I had really tried to finish off something that might be considered furniture.


I did not stain it, I wanted the beauty of the cypress to come through.

chrisc133 said:

YukonRon said:

chrisc133 said:

Sonny3 said:

My table was built by the same folks. Good quality. Congrats. I put 5 coats of Marine Spar Varnish on mine. LOWES carries a true marine grade clear glossy varnish. I think its about $16 per quart and I used 2. FWIW. When I get home I'll post a pic.

@Sonny3 did you stain your table before applying the varnish?  What varnish are you using from lowes?

This is exactly what I am talking about. With Sikkens, there is ko need to do multiple applications, and the durability exceeds anything that is out there for marine or outdoor applications. Whatever.
Half the time, half the material. You figure it out on the performance vs cost.

@YukonRon is this the product you're talking about?  They have a few different products. 



 Or something out of this line?

http://www.perfectwoodstains.com/products/deck-stain

What part of Georgia did you live in?

Northeast of Atlanta in Gwinnett county. I used the translucent deck stains. Awesome material, incredible durability, easy to work with. I did not put a protective clear on it. You could stain and clear or just go straight to marine clear. Either way you will get something long lasting and beautiful, for years to come.
I do not know if you recall, several years ago, there was an all Female team that qualified for the yacht racing event, "America's Cup. " Very cool design on the boat, painted exclusively with Sikkens. Many of the boats competing today  painted with Sikkens.
Also, Dale Earnhardt's car, the black number 3 was painted in Silkens automotive refinishes. FWIW.

I used Sikkens Cetol 1 RE when I built my table.  It's only been about 6 months but so far so good.  I liked the fact that you can choose from different colors.  I brought in a scrap piece of wood to my local dealer and they painted 4 or 5 different colors on there so I could see what they'd look like against my cedar.

http://www.perfectwoodstains.com/view-product/cetol-1-re

@Sonny3 Did he give you recommendations on surface prep? Grit sizes etc?

I sanded to 120, applied two coats of marine epoxy, sanding between coats, then 3 coats of spar, sanding lightly 120 - 240 between coats.   3 years later, looks almost like new.   I'll post a followup thread at some time.

YukonRon said:

All the work is in the prep for any type of finish.

Amen brother! 

Well, this is a long read, but informative.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/rules_for_sanding_wood

chrisc133 said:

jimithing said:

I used Sikkens Cetol 1 RE when I built my table.  It's only been about 6 months but so far so good.  I liked the fact that you can choose from different colors.  I brought in a scrap piece of wood to my local dealer and they painted 4 or 5 different colors on there so I could see what they'd look like against my cedar.

http://www.perfectwoodstains.com/view-product/cetol-1-re


 

@YukonRon I just got off the phone with Sikkens and he recommended the Cetol 1RE.  Said to apply one coat--wait 24 hours--and then apply a second coat.  He said to make sure to only apply 2 coats as any additional coats will mess it up.  He said it would need a reapplication every 4 years or so when the sheen wears.  He said the advantage of the Sikkens over a Spar varnish is that it's not as brittle and doesn't need as many coats.

@jimithing is your table exposed to the elements?  Do you cover it?  Since you've used this product--any other advice/recommendations?

@chrisc133I read up on their recommended process for outdoor furniture and followed it almost exactly.  This was my process:

Bought all the wood and let it sit for a couple of weeks so it would dry out a little.  I bought almost all rough cut wood so I sanded all the wood to 80 grit.  I did this with an orbital sander and it was a huge pain in the rear.  It would have been much easier with an electric planer but I didn't have one at my disposal and wasn't going to buy one.  Then I cut the wood and assembled the table.  I have a small kid so I had to work on this for a couple hours at a time on weekends where we didn't have much going.  Consequently it took me 1.5 months to build my table.

Once the table was built I did the wood prep process that Sikkens recommends.  You use TSB, bleach and water in a sprayer and spray it all over the wood.  Let it soak for a few minutes and scrub it with a bristle brush - nothing that would dent the wood.  Then you have to power wash it off.  They say a regular garden hose with a sprayer isn't good enough.  Must be a power washer.  Using the power washer made the grain rise on the wood again so once the table had dried for about a week I sanded it again.  This time with 120.  I really only sanded the parts that I was going to touch or see.  I blew as much of the sawdust off as I could.  Then i wiped it down with a damp rag to pick up any remaining sawdust. 

At that point I put my first coat on.  It was just starting to be spring at this point so it wasn't real warm outside.  It took it a while to dry to the point where I thought I should put another coat on.  Maybe 3 or 4 days.  I put on the second coat and went to Hawaii for a week.  When I came back it was dry and ready to go.

I'm pretty happy with the way it looks right now.  After the 2nd coat dried the vertical surfaces looked perfect.  The horizontal surfaces showed a little bit of brush strokes where the stain didn't quite all absorb.  I don't know if that's because I put the first coat on too heavy or what.  It was only really noticeable if you were looking at it from 2 feet away.  Those have blended in over time and I can't see them at all now.  So it looks great right now.  I do not have a cover on it.  This spring we got something like 30 inches of rain in a single month.  The last month or so it's been in the high 90's, low 100's and direct sunshine and it still looks great.  I'm very happy with the way it looks right now, hopefully it holds up as well as everyone says it does.

You can see a couple pictures of it stained here

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1182044/my-xl-table-build/p1

My suggestions would be to follow their recommended process and have your dealer put some sample colors on a test piece of wood so you won't be surprised by the color you end up with.

@BeerNBBQ Mine is pine. Use a presealer and you will be fine. There's one for oil based and one for water based so buy the right one. Minwax brand works fine. Brush it on liberally and let it soak for 20 minutes. Then wipe it down. Wait about an hour and then stain or varnish. You will get great results.

Beautiful table!