Minwax fast drying polyurethane dries to white haze

[bw]

Purchased last fall, opened yesterday. Stirred as usual, looked ok. Applied with foam brush on test piece of medium pored teak-like wood. Set aside at room temperature and it immediately starts to look like I coated the wood in white soap. What the hey. After a couple hours no change. Almost looks like I painted the wood with white lead.

I've used this produce before without problems, but it "might" be some kind of reaction with the wood. The wood was purchased at a farm sale in a batch of other hard woods that could have been over 30 years old. Some mahogany and what I thought was teak but I can't imagine what the heck happened.

Maybe return the can to the store and try another batch.

[PDQ]

Could there be moisture in the sample wood???

P D Q

[SonomaProducts.com]

This sound like blush for sure which is moisture captured in the finish before it has a chance to evaporate. I've only seen it with lacquer but maybe this "fast dry" is acting like lacquer and skinning over very fast, not allowing the moisture to evaoprate. With lacquer we add a retarder to slow the skinning to allow the moisture to escape. Typically only seen when you have high humidity.

A few possibilities are:

- Moisture in material. I guess unlikely if this was the first time it was ever opened.

- Shelf life problem and something went bad in the can.

- High moisture content in the wood.

I am not familiar with this product. Is it water based? If it is oil based, maybe try th> Purchased last fall, opened yesterday. Stirred as usual, looked ok.

[bw]

A few possibilities are:

- Moisture in material. I guess unlikely if this was the first time it was ever opened.

- Shelf life problem and something went bad in the can.

- High moisture content in the wood.

I am not familiar with this product. Is it water based? If it is oil based, maybe try thinning it with some mineral spirits to maybe increase the open time to let the moisture escape. If water based, is there a thinner you can use, maybe flowtrol or something? Also, is this semi-gloss or satin? Those sheen killers are just white paint pigment so maybe somehow it got out of balance and you got all of it in one coat.

Oil based, satin. It's a quart can. Now that I think about it, while I stirred the can to mix the bottom layer for a while I looked at the lid and noticed it had the white soapy color, so then I touched the white with the foam brush first to see what it would do. Some of the white was already soaked in the brush when I dipped it in the main can.

I ended up sanding the white off and trying something else. Now I'll take more time mixing, I didn't know that the sheen killers were white pigment.

[bw]

Could there be moisture in the sample wood???

P D Q

----------------------------------------------- Doubt it, it's been very dry around here this winter. Wood stored on high rack in garage. Test piece was sanded as usual along the grain. Wood does "feel" moist or greasy to touch. It might be that I'm not that experienced with tropical wood.

Tested another piece with mineral oil and it really looks good so I'll skip the poly.

[Casper]

I had the exact same thing happen to me when finishing three computer desks. My first coat went fine but it "fogged" white during the second coat. Even though it was temperate and dry inside, the temperature and humidity outside was high and apparently some of the moisture seeped into the poly. I ended up dipping the desktops to remove the poly and recoating a week later and they came out fine.

`Casper

[nailshooter41]

As usual, Sr. Sonoma is on his game. FWIW, I agree.

Actually, the shine killers that break the reflectivity are usually some type of silica, flat ground to the manufacturer's specs.

These will easily collect on the bottom of the can if the material is old, or in my experience, been exposed to a lot of different temp changes. (For example, here we have had some days lately where the overnight temp was 35 - 40 degrees different from the day temps).

Do yourself a favor. Go to the hardware store and buy yourself a paint stirring gizmo with the spiral configuration on the end. Put that on the end of your drill and stir your material, no matter what it is, for at least three minutes in a quart sized can. More for a gallon, even more for a five gallon.

Don't whip any air into your material when you are stirring. Air will make bubble in your finish, even after application. A low mix speed works fine. When the semi gloss, satin clear coat is properly mixed it will look like clear amber in the can. Some clear flats look a bit cloudy, but consistent. Never white.

Robert

[bw]

Actually, the shine killers that break the reflectivity are usually some type of silica, flat ground to the manufacturer's specs.

These will easily collect on the bottom of the can if the material is old, or in my experience, been exposed to a lot of different temp changes. (For example, here we have had some days lately where the overnight temp was 35 - 40 degrees different from the day temps).

Do yourself a favor. Go to the hardware store and buy yourself a paint stirring gizmo with the spiral configuration on the end. Put that on the end of your drill and stir your material, no matter what it is, for at least three minutes in a quart sized can. More for a gallon, even more for a five gallon.

Don't whip any air into your material when you are stirring. Air will make bubble in your finish, even after application. A low mix speed works fine. When the semi gloss, satin clear coat is properly mixed it will look like clear amber in the can. Some clear flats look a bit cloudy, but consistent. Never white.

Robert

Excellent !! I do have a paint mixer bit, but it seemed aggressive for a quart of poly. My work area is a partially heated enclosed porch, the temp was lower than RT. My poly experience had been with "gloss" or "stain" and used right after purchase. Now I'm confident that poor mixing was my problem. Thanks for responding.

[R.M.R]

Last winter I had the same situation with Krylon sprays. I had a few small projects and decided to spray bomb them with clear over Minwax water base stain. The boxes I wanted to spray were a week dry but both Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear & Trilpe-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze both fogger up something terrible after following the directions to the letter. Through e-mail communication the conclusion was humidity. I live in Florida which is notorious for humidity but it was winter so I'd say it was about 40 to 50%, which is considered low for here. The plus side worth noting are the people at Krylon were very apologetic and even offered to send me two new cans, which I guess I can still get but for small projects I'll stick with Rust-Oleum Lacquer High Luster, which I never had a problem with even in summer... Ray,

[kathy.tpwap]

I am having a similar problem with the same product. The first time I used it the room came out beautiful. The next room I did a week later is dull. I used a foam brush both times. I went and bought another can and went over it to get the sheen. Waited a week and did another room and the same problem again! Just no sheen at all! Maybe I have to buy small cans, so it's a new can each time. Depressing! I still have 4 rooms and a landing to go. I was wondering if I shouldn't be wiping my brush on the side of th e can as I go? I just don't understand!

[Morgans]

I wonder if the OP figured out the problem sometime in the last 5 years?

[jloomis]

I am having a similar problem with the same product. The first time I used it the room came out beautiful. The next room I did a week later is dull. I used a foam brush both times. I went and bought another can and went over it to get the sheen. Waited a week and did another room and the same problem again! Just no sheen at all! Maybe I have to buy small cans, so it's a new can each time. Depressing! I still have 4 rooms and a landing to go. I was wondering if I shouldn't be wiping my brush on the side of the can as I go? I just don't understand!

[Michael]

Good info to have, though, in case this ever comes up, which apparently it does from time to time.

[dpb]

Recently in particular, if one sees a thread appear in your newsreader already bearing the RE: you can almost bet it's an ancient one that came to life from google...

I've come to just ignore 'em entirely unless/until somebody makes a new comment that interests.

Here, just in passing, as Michael notes in his response, there is something of interest. My experience w/ the Minwax fast dry and blended poly's is I won't touch 'em going forward.

I've used the traditional Minwax oil stains and rubbing oil products with great success for 30+ yr as well as their early conventional poly's (altho I don't use poly much at all) and recommend them highly. The newer "labor saving" products I think are misguided and not worth bringing home.

$0.02, imo, ymmv, etc., etc., etc., ...

[Leon]

My biggest clue is if the OP of the RE thread is not recognized.

[Baron]

I am having a similar problem with the same product. The first time I used it the room came out beautiful. The next room I did a week later is dull. I used a foam brush both times. I went and bought another can and went over it to get the sheen. Waited a week and did another room and the same problem again! Just no sheen at all! Maybe I have to buy small cans, so it's a new can each time. Depressing! I still have 4 rooms and a landing to go. I was wondering if I shouldn't be wiping my brush on the side of the can as I go? I just don't understand!

I didin't see it in any of the posts but you aren't by any chance using satin or flat?

[Morgans]

"dpb" wrote

No doubt.

My experience suggest that the clear was put over something like stain that was not completely outgassed, or the clear was put on or allowed to dry in a high humidity environment.

[ellyn.murphy10]

Just bought a spray can of minwax polyurathane for my final coat on an old walnut table. Previous coats had been minwax polyurathane fast drying rub-o n with sanding in between. I live in a arid region of the country, so I kno w moisture is not a problem. The spray can of minwax left a milky, rough fi nish. I will sand it off tomorrow and go back to my hand rub routine. Very disappointing product and waste of money!

[Swingman]

I have used two separate cans, satin and semi-gloss, almost every day this past week of this exact product, making stain samples for color decisions for a client, and have not had a problem.

Call Min-Wax.

FWIW, I do not sand or scuff in between coats with this product and have yet to have a problem.

[Swingman]

One other thing. If you are using anything but "gloss", IOW a satin or semi-gloss product, she simply may not have shaken the can enough.

When the direction say shake for two minutes, particularly with a product that has particulates in it to cause a sheen, the need to thoroughly mix the product is critical.

Go back, shake well and test it on a board to see if the the blush still happens.