Week 3

On Saturday, March 4th, 2006, we removed the cups and wiped the chips.

Each day, since starting the test, the water condensation from the previous day was ALWAYS on the chip.  As we stated, we never wiped the water from the chip.  Therefore, the chip was basically covered in water from Monday-Saturday.  The water ran around the cup edge and typically down toward the bottom of the picture...although never falling off the chip.

Sample 1        completely unfinished
Sample 2        (1) coat of PU finish + (2) undercoat PU sealers
Sample 3        (2) coats of PU finish + (2) undercoat PU sealers
Sample 4        (5) coats of PU finish + (2) undercoat PU sealers
Sample 5        (2) coats of PU finish + (4) undercoat PU sealers
Sample 6        (2) coats of PU finish + (6) undercoat PU sealers
Sample 7        (1) coat of Melamine finish + (2) undercoat Melamine sealers
Sample 8        American cabinet company drawer front (head).

Again, another similar week from 1 and 2.

Here are the chips directly after removing the cups.  You really can't make out all the water spilled.  There's still some water marks on all the chips.  They've been wiped, but just with a simple paper towel...not cleaned.

Here we have cleaned the chips.

Below are some close-up shots of the SAMPLE 7 and SAMPLE 8.

The (2) pictures here are SAMPLE 2 - the standard finish applied to the body of the bar.  Again, this should be our weakest PU sample.  It's spotless and still smooth.

The (2) pictures here are SAMPLE 3 - the standard wood tabletop finish.

Below are SAMPLE 2 and SAMPLE 3.  We are trying to show you different glare angles.

We expect SAMPLE 7 to permanently stay marked soon.  It's still smooth, but it does seem like a bump or two appeared.  I'm just not 100% it wasn't already there.  SAMPLE 8 is rough as hell....but it was like bringing a cat to a dog fight...unless it's one of them big cats.

We are now a bit over 360 hours of water on the chips.  This may sound a bit like a broken record, but there is always standing water on the chips 24 hours.  We are half-way there.

This is getting boring really, but my finish manager tells me the fun really starts with the chemical test.  He says this is where SAMPLE 7 is going to get its ass-kicked.....as well as ALL the samples. We can destroy the samples with chemicals.  He says SAMPLE 7 should not hold-up well to HOT water....."that there is an hypothesis".  We'll see how right he is later.

And we have all new samples for the chemical test.