Hi Dan,
The poly is flexible enough. Don't worry about that.

Finishing late in the day and letting it dry overnight seems like a safe idea.

I normally use Flecto's Varethane and you can thin it a bit(maybe 5%) with
mineral spirits. I know some guys thin it much more when they want to wipe it
on.

Forget the japan dryers. I made tables for a restaurant. Suggested to the owner
that he wait two-three weeks before putting them into service. After one week
they were being used constantly. I year later they look fine. Cheers, JG

Dan White wrote:

So in my ongoing saga to finish the "acreage" of butcher block counter tops
I just bought for my store, I saw the recent post on water based poly and
see that the cure time for oil poly to harden can be weeks. If this is true
then I need to finish them now so that when they are installed in about 3
weeks they will have hardened. Two questions come to mind. 1) Is the poly
flexible enough to withstand normal flex/stress from drilling and installing
the counters? 2) Since I will have to finish the counters in the back of the
store, are they likely to stink up the whole place? I could do the work
after closing and ventilate until the next morning. It is a food
establishment so I can't have too, too much fumes.

After consulting some guys at a website I was recommended to visit, here's
what they came up with: The idea is to protect the wood in non-food prep
areas with poly. I wanted to bring out the grain of the hard maple as much
as possible and the suggestion was to 1) treat with boiled linseed oil, 2)
finish with gloss poly (I got Minwax) maybe 2 coats with sanding, and 3)
finish the top coat with satin poly. It was also recommended to use a
thinner in the poly to keep the coats thin instead of "gloppy" but the can
does say not to thin...not sure who is right on that one. There was also
the suggestion to add Japan Drier to quicken dry time. Anyone use this
before?

Thanks,
dwhite