It's cold and I need to finish with Poly ??

Bartee Lamar

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499
Location
Alpharetta GA ( Metro Atlanta)
I am making a "train table" for my 3yo grandson for Xmas.

It is all birch ply. My usual finish for this kind of thing is 3 coats of satin poly

However it has not been warm. Last year I ran into same problem with late planning and cold basement for a finishing project.

Is water based poly easier to deal with with less heat in the basement ?
 
I just checked a can of General Finishes Water based simi gloss water based and all it says it at 70 degrees and 70% humididty it will take 2-3 hours. I says at colder temp it will tak up to 8-10 hours. I know from expierance that lower humidity will shorten the time to dry. I hope this helps. How cold is it in your basement.
 
Bartee, Recently I was using a water based top coat (Target USL) and found it can take 2 to 3 times longer to cure in a 45 degree area as compared to a 75 degree area. So low temp will slow down water based as well. BUT the water based poly dries faster than the solvent so I would think it may be worth a shot if it means making that 3 yr old happy;). Could you put a space heater nearby?
 
I have a goose neck floor lamp. You know the kind that has a flexible neck that you can twist around to suit your needs and a metal shade that surrounds the bulb. That is my answer to a cold basement. After application of a coat of Poly I direct the lamp over the project and let it set over night, the extra heat helps to cure out the poly. Sometimes it only needs a little help to cure. Or you might try an area heater near by to knock the chill off.
 
About four years ago I had to put two new exterior doors on a home for some friends of ours. I bought the doors ad HD and they were nice solid wood six panel doors but they were raw wood. I did all of the machining and fitting into the existing frame. I got them installed and working correctly and then removed them and reinstalled the original doors while I did the finishing work on the new ones. It was winter time so working outside was not an option and I had to do it in the basement. My basement was probably in the mid to upper 50's as far as temps go. What I did was to lay the doors across a couple of saw horses and when I was doing the finishing work I used one of those 1000watt halogen work lights. It's two 500 watt units mounted on an adjustable stand. It worked very well! I could "adjust the heat" by moving the placement of the fixture. If I wanted it warmer I just moved it closer and vice versa. Those things kick out a LOT of heat and raised the temp in the immediate area quite a bit and the sealer, stain, and urethane all dried very well without any problems. (That is problems with the drying/curing of the doors) Don't ask me about the reaction of SWMBO to the smell in the entire house during the project. :eek: :doh: :D

Just a thought. I'd be a little afraid of a space heater in this situation. I've left the lights on overnight while doing this several times and never had a problem. But I'd be a little concerned leaving a space heater running unattended.

Good luck!

John
 
Last edited:
John Pollman said:
Don't ask me about the reaction of SWMBO to the smell in the entire house during the project.

I know what you mean about the smell of polyurethane. Last time I applied oil-based poly indoors, it permeated the entire house. Making matters worse, when LOML removed a load of clothes from the dryer, it came out smelling like burnt plastic. She was not amused.

Cheers,

Kevin
 
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