KevO
Well-Known Member
For me at least...
While the boat is in the yard I have taken the opportunity to lift the cabin sole and refurbish it. Stripped it back to bare wood with a cabinet scraper, sanded out with 120 then 180, cleaned it thoroughly and applied the first coat of Compass 50/50, rolled and tipped with a good natural bristle brush. Varnish kept warm in a bain marie throughout. This was followed by a 75/25 and then a full strength coat when dried. First rub back with 220 to flat off the highlights and then 380 to take out any marks etc. Then another couple of full coats carefully applied as before. Despite best efforts, I could still see some brush marks so when ordering another can of Compass I thought I'd get a few foam brushes to see if they made a difference. Just flatted off cleaned and applied the next coat tipped off with a foam brush and Wow! What a difference!
I'll gently flat it off again with 400 wet and dry in a couple of days before applying a couple of final coats but I'm already a convert to foam tipping
Question about rollers though... I have been using the Harris varnish roller heads and despite rubbing them, hoovering them, sticky taping them and even giving a sacrificial coat to some cleaned board, they still give off the odd tiny fibres on the work. I used a foam roller head today and that didn't leave fibres but boy do they drink varnish or what? Seems like quite a waste to my wallet. Tips?
While the boat is in the yard I have taken the opportunity to lift the cabin sole and refurbish it. Stripped it back to bare wood with a cabinet scraper, sanded out with 120 then 180, cleaned it thoroughly and applied the first coat of Compass 50/50, rolled and tipped with a good natural bristle brush. Varnish kept warm in a bain marie throughout. This was followed by a 75/25 and then a full strength coat when dried. First rub back with 220 to flat off the highlights and then 380 to take out any marks etc. Then another couple of full coats carefully applied as before. Despite best efforts, I could still see some brush marks so when ordering another can of Compass I thought I'd get a few foam brushes to see if they made a difference. Just flatted off cleaned and applied the next coat tipped off with a foam brush and Wow! What a difference!
I'll gently flat it off again with 400 wet and dry in a couple of days before applying a couple of final coats but I'm already a convert to foam tipping
Question about rollers though... I have been using the Harris varnish roller heads and despite rubbing them, hoovering them, sticky taping them and even giving a sacrificial coat to some cleaned board, they still give off the odd tiny fibres on the work. I used a foam roller head today and that didn't leave fibres but boy do they drink varnish or what? Seems like quite a waste to my wallet. Tips?
