Jessi's Coffee Table - Finishing: Sealer Coat

After doing a lot of research on finishing, a command decision was made, by me of course, to try something new (to me) on this coffee table top - lacquer.

As far as I'm concerned, the best finish will be durable, but also yield a high gloss finish similar, if possible, to what I'd get with an epoxy/resin pour. Some of the videos I've watched make this process look very promising. In fact, one of them showed the finished process looking pretty much like a mirror or sheet of glass looks. Impressive.

If a lacquer finish works, I'll be using the process on every "flat" piece I do from now on. Sides, nooks and crannies, and voids are another story altogether. Those will continue to get the old tried and true hand rubbed polyurethane treatment if, for no other reason, than they are so damn hard to "polish" when all is said and done - something required in the lacquer finishing process as the last step. But flat surfaces? Here's hoping.

One video recommended sealing the top with a half and half mixture of lacquer thinner and 100 % lacquer. It just so happens, I have the right ingredients:

The plastic jug on the end in the photo above served as my mixing bowl.

Once the ingredients were poured into the jug, they were stirred thoroughly to make sure of an even flow when brushed on.

Am I doing this right? Every video I watched said to resist the temptation to keep "painting" the lacquer. The temptation is strong to go against that advice. As the lacquer was applied, I could see brush marks and "pooling" just about every step of the way. Must resist......must resist.......

Maybe I need to use a wider brush? The one I'm using is a good quality, which is also something highly recommended in those videos, but the brush marks left behind seem to be pretty "pronounced". May have to do some "light" sanding to shave off those brush marks before going to the next step if they don't disappear by themselves.

Anyway, this was completed at 9:30 AM. The instructions on the can say to let it dry for 2 hours. Hmmmm.....guess I'll write up a short blog post in the interim on what's going on. Hard to wait until 11:30 to apply the first full coat of lacquer. Must resist......must resist......

DANG, but I hope this works! The lacquer on top of the epoxy really makes the tiles pop! Am a little concerned about that bonding chemical reaction everyone talks about with lacquer. Will it affect the the epoxy? Stay tuned!