In article om,
says...

"Lew Hodgett" wrote:

Do NOT use spar varnish, this table is not a spar.

Assemble everything then apply a marine coating.

My choice would be Epifanes marine coatings available from
Jamestown Distributors.
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"John McCoy" wrote:

??? You're contradicting yourself. Epifanes is spar varnish.
So is Pettit Z-Spar (my preference) or Interlux.
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They offer both spar varnish and clear wood finish varnish.

http://tinyurl.com/mzrlg7j


Agreed, big box stores don't play this game.

Lew

A few years back Practical Sailing did a test of 54 finishes. After two
years the coating integrity of Epifanes, Helmsman, and Z-Spar Captain
were Fair-, Fair, and Fair+ respectively. There was no single-component
product in the test that got better than "Fair+".

Now, you may think it's worthwhile driving across town and spending
twice the price to get a product that is "Fair-" but I think I'd go with
the cheap stuff.

There was only one product in their test that really held up after two
years, Interlux Perfection. That's twice as expensive as Epifanes and
it's a two-part urethane which means that once you've mixed it you throw
away any that you haven't used, and that making repairs that don't show
is a pain in the butt.

Note that Perfection, like much else in the paint and coating industry,
has been Californicated (aka "reformulated for reduced VOC") so the
current product many be better, worse, or the same, but usually products
suffer during Californication so we all know how to bet.