What type of finish?

[cecil dean]

Redoing a dining room table for my daughter-in-law and grandchildren. The grandchildren do crafts on the table and got some acetone on the old finish which dissolved it. My question is what would be the best type of finish (topcoat) for the table. I sanded it down and put 2 coats of oil base gel stain on it 3 day ago so it should be ready for the top coat now. I know that they will be doing crafts on it again so will most likely will get acetone and/or alcohol on it again.

[Bennett Ostroff]

The finishes with the best chemical resistance - and I believe the only finishes that will be resistant to acetone - are oil and water based polyurethane and epoxy. Others may be able to vouch for non-poly varnishes. I haven't personally tested these for comparison but I would bet on them all having good acetone resistance for a short period of time. Oil based polyurethane would make most sense over the oil base gel stain.

Acetone is one of the strongest solvents but small spills are likely to evaporate before causing any problems, as long as the finish has cured. The alcohol will be no problem for these finishes.

FWIW, young kids using acetone seems like maybe not the best thing, but I'm no expert.

[Wayne Lomman]

2K polyurethane or epoxy. Single pack finishes won't do it. The alternative is to have a piece of masonite or good, flat, thin ply cut to the size of the table top which you put out whenever the kids are doing craft. That is probably cheaper and more effective. Cheers

[cecil dean]

Its granddaughters with nail polish remover. They have a craft room but the kitchen "is better" they say. When I was raising children I know how I would have stop it but that the Old way. Thanks for the suggestions.
Cecil

[Jim Becker]

Acetone slash nail polish remover is a chemical that's going to be tough to guard against relative to most finishes that most "normal humans" can deal with safely. The best solution is that they don't use that kind of a product on or near wooden furniture. That stuff can even affect some other non-wood materials commonly used in bathrooms...

[Patrick Chase]

2K polyurethane or epoxy. Single pack finishes won't do it. The alternative is to have a piece of masonite or good, flat, thin ply cut to the size of the table top which you put out whenever the kids are doing craft. That is probably cheaper and more effective. Cheers

A 2k finish is definitely going to be the most resilient option.

While I'm not aware of any single-pack finishes with perfect acetone resistance, some of them are a lot better than others. For example Target em8000 (a precat conversion varnish) claims a KCMA acetone result of "softening / full recovery" (https://www.targetcoatings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/TC_TechDataSheet_EM8000CV_R3.pdf), which is loads better than your existing finish. KCMA uses a 4-hour dwell time, so a finish like that should withstand momentary exposure pretty well.

General offers a water-based 2K (https://generalfinishes.com/wood-finishes-professional/water-based-topcoats-and-sanding-sealers/enduro-conversion-varnish) that might be worth trying. It has a reputation for being very sensitive to mixing conditions (agitation, dwell time, etc) so research it carefully first.