TV Tray Tabletop Finish?

[Bill McCarthy]

I'm in the process of making a set of TV Tray tables, but I have questions as to what finish I should use for the tops. I've read that polyurethane is supposed to be resistant to heat, but now I'm not sure what that means. I'm making the tables from Southern Yellow Pine. So far, I've tried 2 different products, Minwax Polycrylic and Cabot Polyurethane 8010. With each of these, when I put a plate of hot food on the table, the plate will "stick" to the table until it cools a little; no heat no problem.

Is there something I can use that won't give the plate a "sticky" feeling on the tabletop?

I don't have any spray equipment, so I'm considering trying brush on lacquer. I've never used that before. Is this a viable solution? I also have some Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, which I'm guessing will work but I'd like to avoid the long cure times if possible. (I got started a little late, but I'd like these to be Christmas presents.)

Thanks for the advice,
Bill

[Steve Schoene]

Cloth place mats work well to deal with hot.

[Bennett Ostroff]

What sheen are you using? Gloss has the most tack, and it decreases as the sheen does. It also may need a little more time to cure.

[Bill McCarthy]

I'm using gloss. The Polycrylic was done last year, that's why I was thinking it had something to do with the Poly.
Locally the only non poly I was able to find is Richard's Spar varnish. Its an alkyd resin. I know Spar isn't the best thing for a table, but I figured I'd give it a try anyway. As of now, I haven't opened the can yet. Richard's is made in FL and sold in the southeast. I've never used it before.

[Bill McCarthy]

I thought I'd give you guys an update and let you know what I discovered. Instead of the finish, I think my problem was the plate.

After trying an alkyd based spar varnish and trying Waterlox Original, I had the same problem of the hot plate sticking to each of the 4 different finishes. The plate I was using to test with was a Corelle plate. Seeing as how these are made by Corning, I'm pretty sure it is some kind of glass. When I used something that was a type of stoneware (or ceramic/whatever it was) I did not have a problem. This is why I'm thinking it has something to do with the glass. I'll just add that the Waterlox performed the best with the Corelle, but still had a problem.

[John TenEyck]

Yes, Corelle is made from glass. Technically, it's a glass/ceramic, but that's not important to the discussion. Your observations were spot in; the smooth surface of Corelle, combined with it's high thermal conductivity is why it stuck to the varnish while the stoneware plates did not. You would likely see the same problem if you sat something made of Pyrex on the surface.

I did a bunch of testing of different finishes a few years ago, including temp. resistance. I didn't test Waterlox, but I did test Arm-R-Seal which is quite similar, and found it to have the best performance of the ones I tested. Products like Polycrylic failed even when I used stoneware test cups.

John