I have had major problems whilst attempting to restore tired items of furniture. I completely rubbed down the flat surfaces of a dining table, a coffee table a dresser, a hifi unit and a small storage unit all in solid pine and previosly polyurethaned (the legs, etc are all finished in off white). Starting off with a 3 inch belt sander using a grade 60 belt and gradually working down to an orbital sander using 280 grit discs, I completely got the surface to a perfectly smooth pine. Starting with the coffee table I applied the first coat of Dulux Quick Drying Varnish (this is water based), to my horror this coat considerably raised the grain of the pine. Much rubbing down and another FOUR coats later I had a reasonable, but not perfect table top. The same happened with the dresser, the storage unit and the hifi unit - the latter being a very poor finish as I was massively peed off by then and was running out of sanding discs! When I came to the dining table I really wanted a good finish so I went to a Dulux Trade Center and asked their advice. They suggested using a solvent based varnish - Dulux Polyurethane Varnish in a satin finish - so I bouught a litre of that then was horrifed when the table top dried out darker that the rest of the furniture (which share the same room). Back to the belt sander to get it all of and do all the prep again then another coat using another of the Trade Center's recommendations, Dulux Diamond Glaze which is also satin finish and water based. This also raised much of the grain like crazy but I was determined to persevere with this one and tried very hard to hand sand the raised grain flat. I now have FIVE coats on the dining table and it looks a right dogs dinner. Dulux Technical advice (via a premium rate phone number) is to seal the table first with a coat of Dulux Gloss Varnish - I should have guessed that this is also water based!! Has anyone managed to solve the problem of water based varnish raising grain ? Regards Tony Macdonald 
