Watco & Profin Incompatibility?

[Nate Monick]

Has anyone had any experience with using Daly's Profin over the top of Watco Danish Oil? I've seen many people talk about using General Finishes Arm'r'Seal over the top of watco with no problems as long as the watco had been given ample dry time. Arm'r'Seal is not readily available in my area, but Daly's Profin is. It would seem to me that they are both more or less a wiping varnish with a fairly high thinner content.

Here's my story:

I had a cedar panel that I had applied two fairly liberal coats of natural watco and some things came up so the panel ended up having about 3 months to dry! Regardless of the amount of Watco I applied I would figure this thing to be bone dry after 3 months. When I got back to the project I decided that I wanted a more protective film forming finish on this particular project so I applied a coat of Profin. It is supposed to dry in 4-8 hours. Well, it was still wet after 4 days. So I wiped the whole thing down and did a little 400 grit wet sanding with mineral spirits in order to get all the profin off and let it dry for a couple more days. Then I put a coat of dewaxed shellac (Sealcoat) on it. I tried another coat of the Profin after the shellac had dried and sure enough it would not dry.

Does anyone have any ideas here? Is Profin really all that different from Arm'r'Seal? I have applied profin with great success over oil based stains. It's hard for me to imagine that this situation is all that different.

Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks!

-Nate

[Steve Schoene]

I don't think your problem is related to incompatibility of Watco Danish Oil and Daly Profin. While Daly goes out of it's way to avoid actually classifying it's product, it appears, mostly inference from its application instructions, to be a oil based urethane wiping varnish. Ordinarily that would be fine over an oil varnish mixture such as the Watco. My guess is that the cedar is the source of your problems certain extractives may well be inhibity the oil based finishes from curing properly. A couple more coats of dewaxed shellac to seal in the cedar, ought to allow you to top coat with an oil based varnish,

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> so the panel ended up having about 3 months to dry!

That is your problem right there. Watco is an oil varnish that is to be applied, let set for 15-20 minutes and the all the excess material is to be wiped dry. Not wiping it dry, and particularly that you applied "liberal" coats means that the Watco has not dry properly and never will. And any finish applied over the Watco will not dry properly either.

At this point you only recovery is to use a chemical paint stripper containing methylene chloride and remove all the finish. Then start over being sure to completely follow the directions on the label.

[Nate Monick]

That is an interesting theory Steve. I would not have thought that the resins in the cedar could affect the oil based finishes ability to dry. I think you may be on to something there. I will try several applications of dewaxed shellac and attempt to seal the surface prior to applying any other varnish product. I was actually thinking that I might switch over to a faster drying water based varnish product now that I already have the color that I want achieved by the DO.

[Nate Monick]

Howie,

To clarify...The two coats of Watco I applied were done in a matter consistent with the typical methods for applying a danish oil. I used a foam brush and spread around the product occasionally applying more as the wood soaked up the product. I did this for about 10-15 minutes then proceeded to wipe any excess product off the piece with a clean rag. I then waited about 24 hours and repeated this process.