"Dave Plumpe" wrote:
No guarantees in life that I know of, Gary -

I guarantee this polycrylic would get trashed within a few months. :-\
I can easily gouge out pieces with my fingernail.

Certainly, the less Polycrylic under the Varathane, the better,
but what you suggest sounds good. If I had it to do, I'd probably
sand down the Polycrylic until it's very thin, but not gone (I
like the color of the first coat of Polycrylic better than
Varathane), then apply 2-3 coats of glossy Varathane (sanding
between coats, of course), followed by one coat of semi-gloss (I
think that's the surface you wanted).

I sanded down the Polycrylic with 220. Much more than just "scuffing
it up," but not down to the wood. Unfortunately this means the
higher areas of the wood are glassy-smooth now, instead of having the
interesting grain pattern I had before. Oh well.

This stuff is nasty to sand, at least with a fine grit. I had to stop
every few minutes to scrape goobers of plastic off the sanding disk.
The sanding dust feels more like fine plastic balls than like the
silky-smooth dust you get from wood. Or even from the old Varathane.

I'm a bit concerned that the color seems a bit irregular now. I'm
hoping that evens out when I apply the Varathane. I really don't want
to have to start over and sand down to the wood again -- especially if
this polycrylic is as nasty to sand with 40-grit as it was with 220 --
but if that's the right thing to do, I'll do it. Better to do it now
before I put a couple of coats of Varathane on. I don't want to have
to refinish this thing again for 15-20 years so I want to do it right.

Gary