poly over tung oil oops

[Mark Versprille]

I used some Minwax wipe on poly over Behr's tung oil finish. I waited 48 hrs between coats and the tung oil finish seemed bone dry but the poly won't dry. I didn't think there was any real tung oil in the Behr product but it's acting like it. The question is what would you do now?

A. Let it dry for six months? (SWMBO won't stand for that. She wants it yesterday) or will it dry in a reasonable time frame (less than a week)?

B. Sand it down? (As gummy as it is now it will take 63 1/2 sheets of sand paper)

C. Scrub it with a solvent and then Sand?

[Joe Chritz]

Is it possible the finish was bad? i.e old

Sanding is likely out of the question. It is possible you have adhesion problems since poly really doesn't like to stick to anything. If what you put down first was tung oil finish it is just a really thin varnish and not tung oil anymore.

Myself, if it didn't cure hard in another day I would look at stripping and refinishing with a quality non-poly wiping varnish.

Joe

[Howard Acheson]

How old is the "tung oil finish?" and how old is the Minwax? The problem sounds like old finish.

The best thing to do is to use a chemical stripper and remove everything that is on the surface

What are you trying to do? Why did you use the "tung oil finish"?

[Mark Versprille]

The Tung Oil Finish is about 6 months old. I bought the wipe on poly three days ago. I don't think either went bad in the can. A year or so ago there was a fair bit of info shared here that (for the most part) agreed the Behr tung oil finish had no real tung oil in it. My BORG doesn't carry the tung oil finish any more, maybe they stopped making it, but I am wondering if with the wide variety of chemical formulae in different products out there that these two just shouldn't be used together. Maybe if you waited a week after using the Behr wiping varnish it would be OK, but why would you do that?

I used the Behr stuff because it was there. 1/4 can, it hadn't given me problems before and I didn't expect problems with a 48 hr dry. Maybe there is some other variable I am having a 'senior moment' about. I'm going to give it two more days to dry tight and if it don't it's time to make a mess.