Finishing wood products

[patmcl]

I was a professional painter for over 30 years, I have painted, stained and sprayed just about everything. But doing finishing on the wooden signs and plaques are new to me. Most signs go outside, and my mentor tells me not to use any kind of varnish or lacquer on the finish because it would start to flake off in 3 or 4 years. I am looking for tips on stains, paints, and over coats that other put on their products. If there is any kind of information on Vectric can someone point me in the right direction for it. Tony gave me a great link for staining PVC images to help them stand out. Tim has a great PDF file on glazing with I have both now to read and re-read, but any other advice from the pros would be great. Thanks Pat

[JayCop]

I am new to the world of finishing myself but I think that a marine epoxy finish might do well for signs. If it can hold up on boats in the salt water or years it should do just as good on land.

[rocabig]

we have done tests at work and found the best finish was a marine grade varnish with a uv inhibitor
we found the non marine grade varnishes ast about 3 to 4 years before needing refinishing the marine grade with the inhibitor lasts around 10 years
we also found oils need to be refinished at least every 6 months

Richard

[Mike-S]

Epifanes is a clear finish that holds up quite well.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/us ... ar+Varnish

[spinningwood]

Pat - If you are an experienced painter, then using those skills to paint your wooden sign like you would have painted a wooden house seems to me like the best way to get a durable finish on an exterior wooden sign.

Clearcoats like epiphane, bristol or cetol will all require reworking long before paint will. At least that was my experience with clearcoats on boats and paint on houses (sherwin williams duration / superpaint). You also have ambering issues with exterior clearcoats (unless they've recently come up with something waterbased that can stand up to the sun (and I doubt they have, but would love to know about it if they did)).

I've had some really bad experiences with exterior stains and I would never use them on a sign, but maybe I just don't know how to use the stuff....

Ed

[esteeme1]

Hi Pat,
I agree with your mentor, varnish not only flakes away but discolor the wood with a yellow tinge. I use an oil based finish, Danish oil. It is not designed for exterior use but is very durable. The best thing about it is, it is a penetrating finish; i.e. the oil will penetrate the wood pores and harden the wood while maintaining the natural look. It can be purchased in various colors as well will take dies. Another good think to this is it is a wipe on wipe off application and is not effected by dust, just use a clean towel to apply and remove. The down fall to this is that is takes several hours to dry but you don’t need to wait that long between coats I tend to go about 6 hours (this all depends on the relative humidity). After the second coat wet sand with mineral spirits with wet or dry sand paper, 220 plus, I tend to go up to 440 grit and sometimes 600. Apply one to two coats after that and leave to dry overnight. I have been using this process for over 15 years and have had no problems with the furniture I have kept. One more thing if one of the pieces are chipped you only need to sand the damaged area and re apply. I just recently modified the process by apply two to three coats of Howard’s orange oil beeswax. It really helps to seal up the end grain as well. It tends to brings out a really nice luster and leave a micro slick finish (without the shine). You can find both products either at Home Depot or Lowe’s. The complete process takes three days to complete but you can do other things around the shop as long as you keep the heavy dust down.