Clear coating resistant to dry erase marker?

[jseiler]

I am making some dry erase marker boards and would like to frame them in baltic birch. So far every one of my clear coats is stained by dry erase markers. Anyone know of anything clear that would work? I've tried spar poly, polycrylic, deft lacquer and krylon uv clear.

[srwtlc]

John,

I have used Gemini conversion varnish (product #550-0012) for quite a few years and it's pretty impervious to most anything once it's cured. It is a high solid/build finish that has to be catalyzed before use.

I just tried a marker on it and it wiped off just fine. The only problem would be any marker that gets into the grain of the wood doesn't wipe out easy and can leave some residue. If a grain filler was used first, it wouldn't get in the grain then. Baltic birch has pretty fine grain though, so it may not be a problem.

One drawback though, unless you use a lot of it, it's about $120 for five gallons (in my area) and what you catalyze has to be used up before it starts to gel. Although I've found that it has a pretty good pot life. I've used some that has been catalyzed up to two weeks later as a first coat with no problems.

Scott

[jseiler]

Scott, thanks for the heads up on Gemini. I can't find anyplace that sells it local to me and haven't found an online except from the company. It seems like they may have changed the numbering convention from looking at their website, but I suspect its the long pot life conversion varnish they have listed.

I went to walmart and bought one can of every clear coating they had and tried them out last night on scrap. I also stopped at truevalue and got a can of helmsman spar poly.

Walmart: Krylon clear, colorplace fast dry clear, kilz clear, minwax fast dry poly, rustoleum clear acrylic. None of these worked. I was kind of suprised the kilz didn't work.

The helmsman spar poly did work pretty well.

I had previously tried some other things I had laying around. Deft lacquer in matt and gloss, minwax polycrlic and a couple of other things. Haven't tried MAS epoxy yet.

I have an order in for frog juice and sculpt's permalac. We'll have to wait and see on those, but its nice to have something that works that I can get locally.

Got an online place for gemini?

John

[srwtlc]

John,

My guess would be that most of the clears you have tried are low on the solids and not as chemical resistant.

I'm not sure if Gemini has some different numbers, but the Ultra-Var one sounds like the same stuff.

They show only one distributor for IN. Accessa Coating Solutions in Indianapolis. 800-539-0126

[elcruisr]

Try Target coatings polycarbonate urethane over their universal sealer. Talk with their tech guru, he's pretty sharp.

http://www.targetcoatings.com/coatings.html

Supposedly better than conversion varnish. I just started using some for exterior millwork in a kids play area.

[bleeth]

Eric: Congratulations on being probably one of the first users in Florida to start going waterborne. At the last IWF show I was at every developer there and they stated that Florida was low on their priority list for setting up distributors due to the resistance of commercial shops to get away from the "cheap and easy" lacquers and varnishes". I'd really like to here more about your experience with the product as it grows.
Dave

[elcruisr]

Thanks Dave! I'm making the switch because of pure business. I like traditional lacquers but the cost of spraying legally is getting pretty steep. After a final conversation with my local fire inspector concerning a legal spray booth I figured forget it, I don't have that kind of money. A lot of guys try to get away without a booth but around here if you get caught it's fine time and they'll shut you down.

So I asked what he thought of me shooting water based. No problem, spray away, booth or not! After talking around I settled on the Target stuff and had a long talk with their tech guy Jeff. Sprung the cash for a really good Asturo gun. I think this is critical for water borne. It works and applies different for sure. You hang on really thin coats and more coats than solvent based. You also don't get the "build up" that solvent gives but it's still pretty good looking.

These newer water borne coatings have much less plastic look to them than the earlier products. Yes, the solvent based look is what we're used to but so far my customer is happy, the fire dept. is happy so I'm happy!

As a side benefit I talked with a few full time finishers via e-mail in other areas who had made the switch. Most never realized what the solvent was doing to them until they switched. They all said they just flat felt better since going water borne.

The water borne polycarbonate urethane is something I just tried. A little different to shoot than the water borne lacquer but this stuff has some pretty incredible properties. Did some reading up and several companies are launching this stuff. It's precat, tough, uv and chemical resistant, water and solvent resistant after full cure. Supposedly better than many conversion varnishes. Had a customer who shoots a lot of CV want to try it out as well. He's beginning to suspect some health problems may be due to skin exposure of the old stuff. It's worth checking out....

[dingwall]

Hi Eric,

About 5 years ago I tried several of the Target products including a prototype of the polycarbonate. How is it for shrinkage? For mar-resistance?

[jseiler]

I got the frog juice in last night and tried it out on a small sheet of 220grit sanded baltic. I sprayed 2 thin coats on it (I used about 2oz for a 30"x30" blank). It didn't seem to build very much, nor did it reject the dry erase marker. My permalac shipment should be here today. I'm going to try a couple more coats of frog juice on that blank to see if I just had too little on it.

If the permalac doesn't work, I'll try target's stuff next.

John

[oddcoach]

I've tried using Target coatings 5 years ago and haven't used anything else since.
john