Wood restorers

8 years ago

I've got an outside bench that was a "freebie"...picked up from the median strip a block away. Since it doesn't owe me anything, I don't want to spend a lot of coin or time on extending its life. The wood slats on the seat are showing their age from weather and sun. I've used Minwax's "wood hardener" but I want to do just a bit more.

I've got West System epoxy, but that has a real short working time. Git-Rot is another, slower-setting epoxy based product, but all of these are expensive. Elmer's makes a "wood stabilizer" but that too is expensive. Plus, it just looks like ol' fashioned white glue.

I do have a gallon of Elmer's "glue-all" which was purchased to make 'slime' for the grandkids. Though it's intended for interior use, I was wondering if this could be thinned and painted on. Maybe their more expensive wood stabilizer has UV-resistant additives.

Any other ideas?

Cheers

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Comments (8)

toxcrusadr
8 years ago
Are you going to use this bench inside or out? In either case I wouldn't recommend diluted glue! Even indoors, on a humid day it will get sticky. Yikes.

Maybe post a picture of what you're looking at. If it was weathered and you wanted to see fresh wood, you could have sanded it a bit, but if you already have a coating on it, it's too late for that I suppose.
apg4
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Dunno what kind of wood...some oriental hardwood - and not at all durable outside like redwood. I could have sanded, or used a low-density filler with West System epoxy, but that was all too much work - and I've got too many other projects in the works. After whatever treatment, I was planning on top-coating with stain left over from doing the greenhouse and storage shed.
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User
8 years ago
Replace the slats and use a semi solid deck stain on them.

Mush longer lasting and safer.
apg4
Original Author
8 years ago
The operative words here were 'minimal work'.... Not sure what the Minwax wood hardener is chemically (the label only says "contains ketones"), but two coats left a hard plastic-like finish kind of like what comes on some pre-finished T1-11 panels. The greenhouse kit (that needed major alterations to overcome design and part deficiencies) came with coating on the exterior panels. It took stain well and has weathered much better than a shed built from unfinished T1-11 that was stained afterwards. Applied several coats of a semi-transparent stain and it looks great.

Cheers
toxcrusadr
8 years ago
Well, we still don't know if you are using this bench inside or out, and no pics, but we know something about a green house kit now. <scratches head>
apg4
Original Author
8 years ago
Well, my posts had two references to "outside", one to "weather and sun" and another to UV resistance. Thought it was obvious....
PRO
Sombreuil
8 years ago
None of the epoxy wood consolidants have any UV resistance; like all good epoxies do, they turn yellow in sunlight. Therefore, if you want to paint, you're fine with them, otherwise, replace the really bad sections with new wood, sand the rest to fresh wood, and apply teak oil yearly.
toxcrusadr
8 years ago
There you go!