Water-based lacquer over wipe on poly

[Mike Wilkins]

Finishing a few box projects and have a question.
Used a wipe-on poly from the Minwax folks as a first coat, but want to spray subsequent coats. Trying to use what I have on hand, so is there a problem spraying water based lacquer over this sanded first coat of poly?
Thanks for your opinions.

[Jim Becker]

Water borne acrylics can go over oil-based varnish including polyurethane varnish with no problem, but for poly in particular, a barrier coat of de-waxed shellac is probably a good idea. You'll want to abrade the varnish surface for best results, too. "Poly" doesn't even like to stick to itself, so that abrasion and barrier coat should insure good adhesion of your water borne product of choice.

[Prashun Patel]

May I ask, why are you coating with minwax poly for the first coat? Is it for color and warmth?

If yes, then you can skip the poly and go straight to the dewaxed shellac. As long as you select a blonde or darker shellac (Zinsser Sealcoat is my favorite) you will be hard pressed to find a visual difference between:

MW poly + shellac + water lacquer

and

shellac + water laqcuer.

Last, I will submit that if you are not working with figured woods that benefit from the translucence that shellac and oil can impart, and you simply want it a little more amber, there are amber waterbased topcoats. Or, you can add a drop of an amber or brown dye to your wb lacquer.

Sorry, that's more info than you asked for!

[Mike Wilkins]

Thanks for the replies. I applied the poly first to enhance the figured wood and then cover with a water based lacquer from rattle cans. I may re-think this approach and just utilize sprayed poly over the wipe on first coat. Sanded of course.