wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

Thank you everybody for responding!

I must admit that most of the responses went right over my head and I
feel woefully overmatched. But to remedy that feeling, I might as well
ask a couple of questions:

1. When you say "diluted poly" diluted with what?
2. When you talk about steel wool - what grade? I went to home depot
and found several gradations. And what is the pupose of using steel
weel between coats?


Paint thinner to if you're using oil-based poly. Don't know if the
water-based responds well to thinning/dilution.

Avoid steel wool. Gets little stickers in your hand, leaves crap all over
the place as it crumbles, and with some acid woods, can sneak in and turn an
area black later.

Two things in sanding between coats. First is level, where you have brush
strokes, bubbles and such to knock off. Best to use a backed sandpaper with
a bit of lube to keep clean for this. Second is tooth, where you scuff to
gain mechanical grip for the next coat. You may use the level method or a
soft-backed flexible sanding sponge for this if you're level. You're just
trying to destroy the gloss a smooth surface gives, so the next coat can
adhere.

On the last coat, lots of people like to randomize the surface with some
abrasive. Cuts down on surface reflection without introducing light-scatter
in the finish itself as "satin" type varnishes do. I prefer to just use
wax, where the polymer size gives me a bit of scatter, but the film is only
a few thick.