Originally Posted by
sunburst
I'm currently using Epifanes Clear High-Gloss Marine Varnish. They offer another similar varnish with a bit less UV blocker, which would be fine for instruments (which don't spend nearly as much time in the sun as most boats!) and I considered trying it last time I bought varnish, but it is more expensive and I've been getting good results with what I'm using, so I did not try the other varnish.
I've said this before but I'll say it again:
I said to myself; "self, your pretty good with a spray gun but not so hot with a brush" so I haven't tried brushing the varnish but instead spray it with my usual finish gun ($30+ Harbor Freight currently).
I thin for spraying with lacquer thinner. The thinner/reducer available from Epifanes, or mineral spirits, helps considerably with flow out and leveling of brush marks, but it seriously increases the chances of runs and sags when spraying. Lacquer thinner evaporates much faster so runs and sags are not a problem.
I've been top-coating with Truoil and have not tried buffing the varnish itself, but I'm confident that it would work fine because of the look of the surface after preparing for TO. That is, sanded to 1500 grit.
The Epifanes product is good, and as is obvious from this discussion there are many ways to apply it, so once again results come down to the skill of the finisher.
As for material savings using a brush as opposed to spraying, that is a "nonissue" for me because I varnish only a portion of the instruments that I finish and I nearly never use up even the smallest can of varnish before some is wasted from curing in the container. (No, I haven't tried "bloxygen".)
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