I've experimented before with 50/50 thinned Titebond II as a finish. Dried pretty quickly, clear, and seemb to be holding up well on the few pieces I've used it on.
I'd made a jig a week or so ago to cut octagons for chess piece bases. I'd been carrying the trial piece around in my pocket to look at occassionally. I'd used a piece of scrap OSB to make it, and one side was pretty smooth, with the other side slightly less smooth. I'd got some Elmers white glue awhile back to 'speerment with (hey, it was 20 cants a bottle at Wally-World), so had thinned some of it too. The Elmers seems to work OK, but I still prefer Titebond II. Also found a couple of bottles of some made in Mongolia, from dead yaks, or somewhere, so figured I'd get some to compare.
The yak glue is a total write off. Multiple coats look good, but they easily peel. Forget that. But the Elmers and the Titebond both give a nice smooth finish. I put multiple coats on both sides of the octagon, and the more coats, the deeper the finish looks. I didn't bother using sandpaper or steel wool between coats, which I think wouold improve the looks a lot, but even so I think it looks probably as good as poly, and is a lot less expensive.
I know the Titebond is diluted 50/50. The Elmers I'm not so sure about, it's definitely thinned, but seems to be thicker than the thinned Titebond. All that means really is I'd need to use more coats of Titebond to get an equal thickness. Could use unthined too, but that usually takes longer to dry. I use thinned to glue paper labels down anyway, find it works a lot btter than the unthinned, so use the thinned version as a finish coat too.
I don't like the smell of the oil-based poly, and the water-based seems to works as well anyway, with a lot easier cleanup. As far as I can tell so far, the thinned Titebond gives as good a finish as the water-base poly, costs less, and seems to be holding up well. I've only been using two coats, but in the future I think I'll try thee or four coats, to see if that's any better, or what.
Oh yeah, I've got a small chunk of the oak flooring my older son gave me in the house, a piece about 3-4 inches long. I tried about 3 coats of the Elmers on the top, and it smoothed it up, and now looks like it was varnished. Not bad. So, now I'm trying the Titebond on the bottom, looks promosing so far. It's like Granny Weatherwas says.
JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?.
- Granny Weatherwax