non drying varathane

[Ramjet]

Hi . I made a couple of shuttles for tatting out of teak . I used lemon oil to enhance the look. After the oil dried I sprayed on gloss pro varathane . That was 3 days ago and it is still sticky .I have moved them to a warmer area . Any suggestions as to what I did wrong ?
I also noticed when shopping for spray varathane that there are 2 different cans . One is a pro finish and a few dollars cheaper and the other lists the same uses. Any differance ? Thanks . Roger

[workin for wood]

Lemon oil is likely your problem, and if you hadn't used that, then teak oil would have been your problem. Perhaps you worked yourself into a double bad situation. I don't have experience with lemon oil. I know that teak itself is very dense and oily and that your varathane will stick but might take as much as a few months to dry. By then it should be loaded with lots of dust to be sanded off, but when it does dry, you can gently sand it and re-apply another coat which this time will dry within a few hours. I am not a believer that lemon oil or any other oil pops the grain any better than the varathane topcoat will anyhow. You should have at minimum, cleaned the teak with mineral spirits before spraying. Personally, I would have used a teak oil on the wood first, which is specifically designed to penetrate and seal oily woods. Then 2 days later, you spray the varathane on and it will dry within the normal time of a few hours. If you use teak oil, you don't need to clean the teak with mineral spirits.

Why is one cheaper, don't know. Quality of finish, or perhaps type of nozzle, type of catalysts used, could be any or more of those reasons.

So what to do now??? What I would do is get a cardboard box big enough to hold your item. Stick a couple dowels in the bottom, the roundness of the dowels decreases the amount of contact area. put item on dowels, close lid, put on shelf. Come back every week and tap it with a finger. When no longer tacky, which could be a few months or more, wait one more week, gently sand and apply second coat, then it'll be fine. The dowels may stick to the bottom, but because they don't touch the finish with that much surface area, they will break free with a gentle tug and the area can be sanded, feathered out. Cardboard box will help prevent so much dust from settling on it.

[Ramjet]

I believe your right about the lemon oil . I did a few before Xmas and used teak oil and then sprayed with varathane . I guess the lemon oil works on pine and other soft woods . Now that I think about it , I finished off a wine glass holder that sits on the neck of a wine bottle . I used fir . I did the same process and it is just drying .The shuttles are about 1"x 2'' . The ones I did before Xmas were not done with lemon oil and they dried ok. Thanks . Roger