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The 757 is as explained a finish to show open grain and as you would not have open grain on epoxy and plastics, it would not achieve this effect. This particularly would be a problem on epoxies in wood, such as river tables where you would have open grain on the wood and very smooth surfaces on the epoxy. Other than that, all Clean Armor products adhere well to epoxy and plastic and I would recommend using the 700 product line.

I never tried but we had several customers reporting foam brushes do not work very well!

The 700 Interior and 705 Exterior are basically the same product in appearance. However, the 705 uses UV blockers to protect the wood from turning grey and it also uses more softeners to make the finish more flexible to allow for expansion and shrinking with the wood through the seasons. The softeners make it more challenging to polish the 705 and you will spend more time polishing it than the 700 to get it to the same level of gloss.

@@MyWoodCutters-ur8vn Thank you

It's hard to help you here as I cannot look up what sheen level you ordered and whether or not you use the sealer. I also would need much more information from wood species, room temperature, and what kind of UV light you are using. Please contact us per email with your order number...

Maybe holding UV light too close.

@ not really , I see them before I cure. Let it sit for a few minutes to let them pop. But they mostly stay in.

@@gooseberry769 Waiting for the bubbles to pop is not enough. About 2 to 3 minutes after applying, you need to wipe over again to eliminate bubbles as shown in this video...

@ will try . Thanks

320

Before finishing these, I sanded up to 240 grit and in between coats, 320 grit.

Yes, the 705 Exterior Finish is the recommended solution for hardwood floors. It offers great UV protection that is helpful in areas of doors and windows that are open frequently, and it has more softeners than the other finishes to allow the wood to shrink and expand through the different seasons on exterior projects. this is also very helpful on large surfaces such as hardwood floors...

@@MyWoodCutters-ur8vn Thank you!

Yes, the water will have no impact on the finish. You could even set your hot cup in a puddle of acetone or lacquer finish on the butcher block and it still would not touch the finish. Even the strongest paint strippers do not touch Clean Armor.

@ I really appreciate you getting back to me, thanks so much!

Clean Armor can resist temperatures up to 400 degrees. Putting a pot from the oven on a piece of finished wood will likely not harm the finish, but the finish is very thin and cannot act as a heat shield. It would very likely damage the wood by cracking or warping, or perhaps leave a discoloration in form of a burnt in ring. I would definitely not risk it. You can tint Clean Armor with any solvent based tint, or you can order the "Wood 720: Undercoater - White" as offered on our website.

You can certainly do your own experiments in this order. I would fill any holes with the filler first before using the sealer and top finish. Unless you are able to apply the filler perfectly flat with the wood, you will need to sand it flat to the surface of the wood and that bears the risk to sand through the sealer if you apply this first....

Great Idea! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

@@MyWoodCutters-ur8vnIs there somewhere in the US where I can get an in-person demo of these products. I live in NM. Thx.

Unfortunately, the answer is "NO" for the foreseeable future...

No, unfortunately, this will not happen anytime soon. Clean Armor currently only holds patents for their products in the US, Canada, and Australia and for this reason, they have limited the sale of their products only to these countries.

The manufacturer highly recommends using the sealer first and therefore, I never experimented without it. However, we have many customers that only order the 757 without sealer and as they don't complain, I can only assume this works for them...

For the differences in between the 700 and 757 (and other questions), please check the Clean Armor FAQ page (Question 20) on our website: mywoodcutters.com/CleanArmorFAQ Yes, you can thin Clean Armor with up to 10% IPA, but you must use an IPA with purity of at least 91%. Ideal working temperature is room temperature of 72 to 85 degrees. Humidity is not critical as you can apply Clean Armor in humidity levels of up to 95%. You can try using a heat gun, but I cannot talk from experience if this will give good results or not. In any case, do not cure with the UV light before you do not like what you see. The UV light will only cure the finish as you see it, so the golden rule is: As soon as you like what you see, turn on the UV light to "freeze it in place"! As Clean Armor does not cure by evaporation like traditional finishes, you can take as long as you need to even out the finish. Also, as Clean Armor is different than other finishes, never apply it right away to your projects without first practicing on a sample piece of wood!

The 757 is a strict 2 application finish where the first coat should be done with the 750 Sealer. As this is an open grain finish, never use the 730 Grain Filler with the 757. If you want to achieve a finish similar to lacquers or polyurethane, then use the 710 Sealer OR 730 Grain Filler, and then apply the 700 Interior Finish.

@ Thanks for the detail!

Which model did you buy? I've been pouring over all the options and not sure which to get. I may eventually get an overhead light but need to do some testing first.

If you watch the other videos, you'll see that it is fairly easy to get an even coat even with hand applications. In all honesty, the sheen level Gloss is best applied by spraying because the Gloss shows easily any imperfection. Matte and Satin on the other hand are very forgiving and turn out great!

No, the sealer is too thin for this. Clean Armor offers a filler paste (called "Wood 737: Filler Paste (Jar of 0.25LB)") which is perfect to fill holes and cracks. It is a clear paste that also cures in minutes under UV light to a hard substance.

@@MyWoodCutters-ur8vndoes the filler act as an adhesive too? Ie filling a small gap between two boards and also improving the adhesion between the boards?

@@tomregenbogen3538 The 730 Wood Grain filler is designed to fill the grain of wood, which usually are not very deep. While it does bond to the wood very well, I would not rely on it to fill gaps in the wood. For such purposes, you can use the 737 Filler Paste which also cures in 2 minutes under UV light and is designed to fill holes and gaps in the wood..

@ thanks, that’s what I was referring to- the filling paste. Looking forward to trying it out.

I assume you are referring to the Gloss sheen level, which indeed is a little tricky to spray without bubbles (sheen levels Satin and Matte don't have this problem). You need a spray gun that allows for proper atomization at very low air pressure of around 15 PSI and a needle size of 0.8 to 1.3mm. Other than that, polishing is your best bet to eliminate small bubbles. Wet sand with 1500 and then 3000 grid and then use a polisher with wool pad and a good polishing compound.

​​@@MyWoodCutters-ur8vn I'm actually having the bubble issue with the satin one. This is also why I don't want to polish the bubbles out because I don't want to make the finish glossy.

Clean Armor adheres well to all kinds of other wood finishes for as long as these are fully cured and dry. Note that the indicated drying time by many manufacturers is more a statement of when the product can be put to use, but full and thorough curing often takes much longer. I personally would not apply Clean Armor over anything that is not at least 1 month old. In any case, the manufacturer is unable to test this on all possible other finishes out there on the market, so always do your own tests before applying this to your projects.

The main thing with Clean Armor that is different from other finishes is that it cures on demand with a UV light instead of evaporation of the solvents. This means that everything else is pretty much the same as with other finishes. You have to take the same care to prevent runners and drips on the bottom. In fact, you really have a huge advantage here. With traditional finishes, you often think everything looks good and you walk away and when you return, you notice some runners have formed in your absence that now are dry. With Clean Armor, this cannot happen. You simply only turn the UV light on when you like what you see to "freeze it in place". When I finish flat pieces with the edges along, I only do one side at a time and include all 4 edges. After that, I turn it around and repeat. This means I finish the edges twice and for that reason, I apply very thin coats here. I mainly do spray application which makes this much easier.

@@MyWoodCutters-ur8vn OK. I think I understand. Top and edges. Flip it over and do the other side and the edges again. Thank you for your response!

Yes, of course...

All Clean Armor products offer enough flexibility to move with the wood for normal expansion and contraction under normal indoor climates. The outdoor wood finish 705 has additional softeners for added flexibility under outdoor climates.

You can use any stain you like. You just have to make sure the stain has completely dried before applying Clean Armor!

@ that’s exactly what I thought I had remembered being told, but, wanted to confirm. I appreciate the response! And I will be shopping for a helical planer cutter shortly, as well! Thank you.!

I noticed the developer using a squeegee on some cutting boards? I can’t mine to harden up.. Why

In 99% of all cases where the Clean Armor does not cure is actually the opposite of what you suspected. You likely applied the coat too thin. Traditional finishes such as hard wax oils require that you use a clean cloth and remove all excess of material, then use another clean cloth and repeat, until there is nothing left to be wiped off. If you are using this technique with Clean Armor, it will not cure as it needs an average coat thickness of 1 mill (1/1000") to cure properly. After applying the finish with a cloth, let it sit for a couple of minutes to soak into the wood. Then use the same wet application cloth again to wipe over and to even out the finish, but not to remove it.

Yes, absolutely! You can use any stain (water or solvent based), but you need to make sure your stain is completely dry before applying Clean Armor!

Yes, "too thick" is the most common reason for unsatisfactory results. Clean Armor is 100% solids where nothing evaporates where traditional finishes have only 30% solids at best and the rest are solvents that will evaporate. Therefore, it is important to apply only 1/3 as much of what you are used to apply with traditional finishes. Also, Clean Armor will not start curing until it sees the UV light. Therefore, you can take your time to wipe it even as long as you need. Only when you like what you see, you turn the UV light on (or take it outside to cure in daylight) to "freeze it" in place. If the bubble you mention only appear while you are curing with the UV light, then the UV light is too strong. Clean Armor gently heats up while curing and the closer you hold the light, the hotter it gets and this can cause all sorts of problems. If you hold the light too close, Clean Armor may be fully cured within 10 seconds, but the results are not satisfactory. Move your light further away until you find the right distance where Clean Armor cures within 90 to 120 seconds! The proper distance for the CUVO handheld lights is around 2 feet! The ceiling mounted CUVO light should be 4 to 5 feet above the work piece. If that is not possible, use the included dial to weaken the light output!

I am getting the same results despite varying even down to the thinnest of applications.

@@pw135same here. I can deal with the bubbles on the first coat but it is impossible to hand apply without streaks. I’ve tried so many methods and always the same result. I can hand apply a gel stain without problems but this can’t be done!

@@pw135 Well, I officially gave up. Maybe a lighter wood could hide the streaks but not walnut. Best method I found to reduce the streaking is to apply with a tightly folded blue shop towel then wipe off with a lot of pressure. This leaves a thin coat with light streaking but also it is very difficult to cure with the UV light. The reaction to UV light requires about 1 mil. After 3 thin coats (and 30 min of cure time each) I could start to see small streaks in the finish. I also tried leaving a 1 mil + coat but it turns out very uneven (you can tell even before curing). In conclusion I feel that the 700 / 710 is only suitable for spraying. I won't be doing this as it's very cold outside and it is too expensive to spray. Yes, you can hand apply it as long as you aren't too picky. You can also hand apply lacquer but nobody does this because you will have a bad result. I reached out to Steffen at MyWoodCutters a few days ago but haven't yet heard anything back. This is a VERY expensive product for it to not work as advertised. :/

Unfortunately, lighter colored wood does not hide the streaks either.

Yes, the product line Wood 705 has been developed for exterior coatings and offers UV protection to prevent the wood from turning grey. It also use softeners to make the finish more flexible to move with the wood when it expands and contracts during the seasons. Having said that, you still need to finish your exterior projects indoors as the daylight will cure Clean Armor within 2 minutes and ruins your product when you just open the bottle outdoors. If you cannot move your projects indoors, you can finish outdoors only at night.

You obviously cannot pour some material onto vertical surfaces, so you take some onto your applicator tool (preferably a wrapped sponge like a stain applicator) and wipe it onto the surface. Once you have the entire surface wet, you wipe over it again to even it out. Repeat until you like what you see and the turn the UV light on to cure.

Yes, you can also finish vertical surfaces. You may have to apply a little thinner to avoid runners. In any case, you are always in full control. If you see any runners, wipe over again. Only when you like what you see, you turn on the UV light to freeze it in place. Working on outdoor projects at night is always safe. There is no UV light coming from the stars and even from a full moon.

Clean Armor can get thinned and cleaned with Isopropyl Alcohol. For thinning, use at least a 99% strength while for cleaning, 70% strength is sufficient.

Yes, of course you can finish stained wood with Clean Armor. However, the stain must be completely dried before applying Clean Armor.

The 750 and 757 is best applied by wipe on in very thin coats and this will avoid brush strokes. Also, the 750 and 757 is a two coat finish with one coat each, so I don't understand why you put oil down first and I have no experience with this to further advise. There is a dedicated video for this product line and the application. This product is not supposed to be sanded much (other than very fine with 320 or 400 grit to remove wood grains that are standing up after getting wet with the first coat). You are in full control as Clean Armor does not cure while you still try to level it out. Cure it with the UV light as soon as you like what you see to freeze it in place and do not cure before that, in hopes to sand away any errors later. At this point, you can try to sand it with fine paper to see what happens. Another coat of 757 will be necessary.