08-09-2015, 07:10 PM
OK, I did some abrasion testing on EnduroVar Satin, Enduro Clear Poly Flat, Arm-R-Seal Satin, and ACE Hardware oil based polyurethane gloss. All the specimens were at least 4 months old, so fully cured. I thought about how to do some kind of consistent and fair test. Right or wrong I decided to do the tests by hand. I started with a new Mirka Abralon pad of 3000 grit.
Holding the pad in one hand I made cycles across the grain of the specimens pressing down very lightly with my forefinger. I made cycles on each specimen, a cycle being a stroke out across the specimen about 3" and then back to the starting point. To the right of the blue tape, here's what they looked like.
Arm-R-Seal:
ACE OB polyurethane:
Enduro Clear Poly:
EnduroVar:
After those photos I wiped each specimen with a paper towel. There really wasn't that much change in how they looked from fresh except for the ACE oil based polyurethane. I'll spare you looking at the photos. I decided to do 50 more cycles with the 3000 grit pad, always using a fresh section for each specimen. Here they are after those cycles and wiping with a paper towel.
EnduroVar:
Enduro Clear Poly:
ACE oil based polyurethane:
Arm-R-Seal:
Clearly the ACE oil based polyurethane was changed the most. That could be because it was gloss while the others were satin or flat, but I don't think so.
I decided to get more aggressive and switched to a 1000 grit Abralon pad and did 100 more cycles on the same spot on each of the specimens. Here's what they looked like w/o wiping with a paper towel.
Arm-R-Seal:
ACE oil based polyurethane:
EnduroVar:
Enduro Clear Poly:
Looking at those photos the ACE oil based polyurethane was abraded the most, and the Enduro Clear Poly the least. You could actually feel the Abralon cutting into the ACE oil based polyurethane and it mostly skating across the Enduro Clear Poly. After wiping with a paper towel they looked like this:
Enduro Clear Poly:
EnduroVar:
ACE oil based polyurethane:
Arm-R-Seal:
Of these images I would say that the Arm-R-Seal showed the least change from the virgin specimen, while the ACE oil based polyurethane showed the most. From the amount of dust generated the Enduro Clear Poly was abraded the least (least dust), but the sheen changed a lot (towards gloss). I brought the specimens upstairs to do some heat testing and first photographed them again side by side:
ACE OB Polyurethane left, Enduro Clear Poly center, EnduroVar right. The abraded portion is in a straight line across the three specimens.
Here it's clear that the Enduro Clear Poly showed the least impact of abrasion (Arm-R-Seal not in this photo, sorry). Maybe this was one aspect that led General Finishes to claim that Enduro Clear Poly is more durable than EnduroVar. But both were more abrasion resistant than the oil based poly, where the abrasion cut down through at least two layers of finish.
John
Holding the pad in one hand I made cycles across the grain of the specimens pressing down very lightly with my forefinger. I made cycles on each specimen, a cycle being a stroke out across the specimen about 3" and then back to the starting point. To the right of the blue tape, here's what they looked like.
Arm-R-Seal:
ACE OB polyurethane:
Enduro Clear Poly:
EnduroVar:
After those photos I wiped each specimen with a paper towel. There really wasn't that much change in how they looked from fresh except for the ACE oil based polyurethane. I'll spare you looking at the photos. I decided to do 50 more cycles with the 3000 grit pad, always using a fresh section for each specimen. Here they are after those cycles and wiping with a paper towel.
EnduroVar:
Enduro Clear Poly:
ACE oil based polyurethane:
Arm-R-Seal:
Clearly the ACE oil based polyurethane was changed the most. That could be because it was gloss while the others were satin or flat, but I don't think so.
I decided to get more aggressive and switched to a 1000 grit Abralon pad and did 100 more cycles on the same spot on each of the specimens. Here's what they looked like w/o wiping with a paper towel.
Arm-R-Seal:
ACE oil based polyurethane:
EnduroVar:
Enduro Clear Poly:
Looking at those photos the ACE oil based polyurethane was abraded the most, and the Enduro Clear Poly the least. You could actually feel the Abralon cutting into the ACE oil based polyurethane and it mostly skating across the Enduro Clear Poly. After wiping with a paper towel they looked like this:
Enduro Clear Poly:
EnduroVar:
ACE oil based polyurethane:
Arm-R-Seal:
Of these images I would say that the Arm-R-Seal showed the least change from the virgin specimen, while the ACE oil based polyurethane showed the most. From the amount of dust generated the Enduro Clear Poly was abraded the least (least dust), but the sheen changed a lot (towards gloss). I brought the specimens upstairs to do some heat testing and first photographed them again side by side:
ACE OB Polyurethane left, Enduro Clear Poly center, EnduroVar right. The abraded portion is in a straight line across the three specimens.
Here it's clear that the Enduro Clear Poly showed the least impact of abrasion (Arm-R-Seal not in this photo, sorry). Maybe this was one aspect that led General Finishes to claim that Enduro Clear Poly is more durable than EnduroVar. But both were more abrasion resistant than the oil based poly, where the abrasion cut down through at least two layers of finish.
John