Cheap VS. Expensive Polyurethane // Water Based // Woodworking // Top Coat Durability Test

what is up jeff with two moose design here we're gonna do something a little bit different today today we're gonna break down two in my opinion equally similar products the reason i chose these products this was actually gonna be a personal test for myself but i shared it with the instagram community that follows me and they were quite interested as well this is a 45 to 52 product it varies online and this for one gallon is anywhere between 94 to 102. i've seen online double the price is it is that price difference worth it you may be surprised let me know down below before we dive in have you tried either of these products what do you think i think they're both great i mean not everyone needs a hundred dollar finish i'm assuming most people won't use 100 finish but it is an option some people just like the quality and the high-end materials and this video is by no means to bash either product i use both of these products and i will continue to use both of these products no matter the result for the sake of the test these two are equal because they both amber woods like walnut cherry mahogany any wood you'd like to amber and that's why i chose these two to face off because i searched all over the internet looking for a similar product to this one that was more affordable and i've actually used this one in the past so i forgot to put these two head to head so let's start out with how i finished the pieces i started out by sanding them to 150 grit and removed all dust before proceeding i typically spray all my finishes since we do such large quantities of items but for this i'm just brushing it on assuming that's what most people will do and it was a lot easier to just brush these coats on than switching over my gun with multiple different top coats i followed the directions exactly as they were in the can standing between coats with 220 grit and then removing all dust before applying the next coat of finish i applied three coats total so this is a hard video to shoot i really struggled getting the actual quality and how the finishes actually looked just with the led lights in the shop and everything like that it was just kind of a pain but on this side we have minwax oil modified polyurethane and clear satin [Music] and then over to this side the competitor general finishes endurovar satin both water-based products so i'll give you guys a rolling close-up of these this is the minwax still looks like a great finish and then onto the higher end general finishes i do think this finish looks better which it should for almost twice the price [Music] both of these products are satin and as you can see up close the general finishes does have more of a sheen which i'm assuming is due to the clarity of the product if you look close you can really see the general finishes is more of a clear finish and the other finish is a little more cloudy i guess i would say so as for viscosity the minwax is slightly thinner not by much but just initial just based on initial thoughts get some gunk on here as for color straight out of the can the general finishes is slightly darker so i have sprayed gallons and gallons of both of these products and there's not enough of a difference to really sway my decision in purchasing either one at that strict standpoint so for sprayability i would say they're pretty identical dry time four plus hours between coats and ideal conditions four plus hours between coats the minwax straight on the back let dry two hours so the dry time is half i was gonna let these cure one month but it uh ended up being a lot longer than that i applied this on here at 4 6 20 and today it is may 31st so these should be plenty cured by now before i cut into this i got a lot of these tests from the wood whisperer he did a few good videos and breakdowns on finished shootouts as well so i'll attach one of his videos down below them are great and that's kind of the inspiration for this video but yeah let's mess up some finishes onto the crosshatch test i believe in theory here that you make the cut marks and then you apply this tape and the finish should pull up oh well hopefully shouldn't pull up when you remove the tape i'm pushing quite deep on these cuts trying to get it below the finish and into the wood giving it the highest probability of pulling up the finish two glasses of ice water [Music] get some water on it [Music] so i forgot to push the record button but this is i added a little bit of coffee here on each one it's just hot enough to right where i can barely drink it but it's still drinkable you can see it i don't know if you can see it's steaming but it's quite hot so i was gonna put some wine on here to represent a spill of alcohol but i figured we'd just uh just go all out and add some isopropyl alcohol 91 i didn't realize my horrible drinking glass placement until after this so i'm sorry i don't know which one's more powerful so i'm just going to throw some acetone on there to be safe so i'm gonna throw a stopwatch on there and let everything sit on there for 15 minutes so while we're waiting we have coffee water that'll hopefully leave some sort of ring then we have cold water which i don't really expect to do much isopropyl alcohol and acetone same thing over here so i felt 15 minutes was a good time to allow all this stuff to sit on there just because in a realistic situation if you spill some alcohol or wine on your table you're most likely going to wipe it up in a relatively speedy manner which i felt 15 minutes was realistic all right so this is where we're at so the the acetone essentially evaporated there's a little bit on here and you can just see where it was over here this is just water the water on this one evaporated and this is isopropyl alcohol wow so neither one has any noticeable marks from anything we've put on them i thought for sure 15 minutes acetone would have done the trick i cannot believe we didn't even do anything to these so let's try a little bit of lacquer thinner i let this sit on there for 15 minutes as well i just don't feel letting it sit on here for an extended period of time really proves anything besides harsh chemicals eventually dissolve finish so this is the lacquer thinner and this one is essentially evaporated after 15 minutes this one still has some on here so let's wipe these off [Music] oh we have the first first sign of damage so it looks a little swollen or tacky there doesn't appear to be anything on this side here but overall we'll give it a little bit and see if it's even visible once it dries out try some extreme durability test i'm gonna throw this at each one five times [Applause] so as expected it's hard to see here but it gave it some pretty good dents here so they're a little hard to see but hard to see but i would say they're equally dented from like uh i would say a two foot drop this bag of screws [Music] so i have an old brick i'm not applying any pressure i'm just pulling it so i'm not trying to push super hard here because i don't want to dent the wood and cut through the finish i just want to scratch the finish and see how strong the finish itself is not the wood [Music] so as you can see there was even sand on it to give it a little bit extra abrasion so they surprisingly both look really good so they're this is the general finish side and there is one noticeable scratch but that could have been from a rock or a piece of sand so imma call this one a tie too the brick test is a tie this is the minwax minwax side so again that did absolutely nothing so over here we have the general finish side [Music] [Music] again that did absolutely nothing all the finish is still on there the midwax side didn't have any noticeable marks after i wiped off the lacquer thinner on this side the general finish the side did have a little ring where the lacquer thinner was but it's been about 30 minutes and you can't even see it let's see if i can get a that's exactly where it was and now that it's fully dried it is gone and this is where we're at guys i it's a pretty uneventful test not a whole lot happened the brick did a little damage and scratched both sides but for dragging a brick across the surface i thought they did pretty good dropping the bag on it did leave some dents but it more so dented the wood than actually like really destroyed the finish and the cross hatch literally did nothing and as for the chemicals i had some people recommend like mayo lime juice and stuff like that but i feel like if the alcohol and all that didn't do a whole lot i didn't think those items would either all right guys i mean that's it i mean as for durability [Music] you be the judge i mean they are extremely close they look almost identical i would say the general finishes has a little bit better look and clarity to it but for the price difference the average person would not be able to tell the difference i'll put links for both of these in the description i would highly recommend both of these for water-based finishes they are extremely durable i poured chemicals on them i dragged bricks across them i threw a bag of screws at them i tried the little hatch test that didn't do much i also tried a different type of tape and it was the exact same results so if you're gonna put these on a table or a coffee table anything like that as long as they are fully cured i would be happy with both finishes i think where a lot of people mess up and have issues with either finish or any top coat in general is not letting that top coat cure if you have that top coat on your table for four or five days and you spill some water on it you get some rings and marks most likely your finish wasn't fully cured because this one stays on the back 30 days until fully cured this one says seven days for light use but these have been sitting for a little over two months so as long as you give your piece enough time to cure and fully harden these should hold up for more than enough i've been using both of them for a while and they're both really good products i buy general finishes in five gallon pails so again guys let me know what you would have done different i don't know if i'm gonna do any more videos like this it was just something that kind of popped up and i thought it'd be a cool video to dive into um let me know what you've done different i don't know what i would have done different with like realistic expectations i mean you're not really gonna beat kitchen tables with hammers and chains and if you're denting the wood it's not so much up to the finish anymore it's the density of the wood they both twisted the torture and held their own but yeah i hope you guys enjoyed this video i'm gonna do a lot more build videos coming up here let me know what you've done different down below make sure you follow us on instagram hit that like smash that like button hit that subscribe button and if you're really digging it hit that little bell you guys all have a wonderful day you

Channel: Two Moose Design

Views: 38,407

Keywords: Cheap vs expensive, top coat, general finishes, minwax, minwax oil modified, general finishes enduro var, two moose design, finishes, strength test, polyurathane, woodworking top coat, woodworking, top coat shoot out, furniture making, wood finishing, diy

Id: fBxLmvdL15U

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020