Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 2:32 AM #1

Joe Pack
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Will a coat of polyurethane help?

Joe Pack

I bought an old school desk for my young granddaughters. I painted it with three of their favorite colors - grape, berry and pink, all Rustoleum spray paint. Not perfect, but they will have it so covered with stickers nobody will notice! What I am wondering is whether or not I gain anything in terms of paint durability by top coating it with a couple of coats of spray polyurethane. Would the poly be more durable than the enamel it would be going over?

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Officially retired on March 1, 2007 after 35 years as a teacher, class advisor, coach, athletic director and high school principal. I miss working with my students, but fishing and my feeble attempts at woodworking keep me busy. Plus, my sweetheart (still working full time...a "stay at home mom for a bunch of years, so a few more years before she earns any sort of retirement) "lets" me do laundry, cook most of the meals and do dishes anytime I get the urge. I am very good at buying tools and materials, but not quite so good at getting around to using them. Still, I have done a little bit of flat work, and am learning how to make toothpicks on my lathes. I have pretended to make a little bit of money by doing a few craft shows for the past 4 years, selling pens and other small turnings. I'm not getting rich, but, after several hundred kits, I'm getting the hang of long and round. Bowls are next, but I'm still learning. I don't pretend to do much of anything well enough to brag, but do most things well enough to not have to pay someone else too much to make it right. After working my way through school a good number of years ago as grunt labor on a summer carpentry crew, factory service guy, hardware store clerk, etc., I learned enough to pound every nail, run every wire and connect every pipe in the house I built. Heck, I even designed it myself...took my "blueprint" (a pencil sketch on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper) in to show the lumber yard folks when I ordered materials! Jack of all trades, master of none is not just a saying, it is the truth in my case. I visit WC regularly, usually only reading, sometimes posting. I toss in my 2 cents worth when I know what I'm talking about. I toss in my 5 cents worth when I only think I know what I'm talking about. When I really try to impress people with what I think I know, I can start some really good arguments or completely make a fool of myself, or both. Visiting WC has usually been one of the higlights of my day for the last couple of years. I appreciate the folks here, and consider them my friends, even if I have only ever met two of them in person. I look forward to meeting many more down the road.

Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 3:28 AM #2

Mark Mandell
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Somewhat

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Any coating, being the thin layer that it is, will only be as strong as what it's applied to. If the color layers are soft, they will allow the poly to crack and flake off, likely taking some color with it. Kids' stuff takes a beating so the poly won't hurt. Might protect the color layers when stickers are peeled and replaced.

Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 11:04 AM #3

Mark Mandell
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PS

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Make sure that your color paints are fully cured before adding the top coating. Depending on heat and humidity, even rattle can stuff can take two weeks or more to get to full cure and hardness. Same with the poly unless it's something like spray Polycrylic that's waterbased and will get to full cure in 4-5 days.

Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 11:27 AM #4

Kneale Brownson
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Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

Kneale Brownson

Kinda like suspenders and belts. You can get polyurethane paints, you know. I found them very durable, especially the water-based stuff, when I owned a motel.

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I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 2:17 PM #5

Yonak
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Paint . . .

Yonak

. . . especially oil-based paint, is, probably, the most durable thing you could apply. If it were me, I would brush on a coat (or two, if you really want it to last a long time) of paint.

Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 2:21 PM #6

Dave Bair
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Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

Dave Bair

Poly may mute the bright colors I assume you've used. Try a sample first.

Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

7/12/17, 10:30 PM #7

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Re: Will a coat of polyurethane help?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Spray can paint is not durable. It is not close to the "enamel" from a can. The urethane will be more durable but its yellowing will change the colors some.

Will a coat of polyurethane help?

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