patriarch wrote:
Remember the patience part. Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

:-) But I'm sick of using the folding table!!

Well, I took it down to the wood, stained it, and as I said the stain
showed up a few corkscrews. But I said screw it, I am sick of spending
up-close & personal quality time with this table. I went ahead and put
on 4 coats of the Varathane DWF, hand-sanding lightly after the 1st and
3rd coats with 320.

The Varathane didn't make the grain pop NEARLY as much as the
Polycrylic. The wood was satiny-smooth after I stained it, and the
first coat came out fairly smooth.

The corkscrews are barely visible. I have to look hard to find them.
I doubt anybody else will ever see them.

18 hrs after the last coat, I can still dent it with my fingernail, but
it's already WAY harder than the Polycrylic. I'll let it cure for a
couple of days and hope it's hard enough for kid use by then.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone!
Gary