Before you coat your charts, you first must "mount" them to whatever surface you are using. You can not simply lay out the charts and pour your finish on to them.
If you are using plywood, wipe it down with a wood filler, let it dry, then sand it smooth. There is product you can purchase called "Yes Paste" it is a non curling vegetable glue. It is not cheap, around ten dollars a pint.
Get a short nap paint touch up roller, these cost around a dollar or so, they are about three inches wide. Lay a glob of Yes Paste on a piece of cardboard then roll your touch up roller into it. Roll an even coat of Yes Paste onto your mounting surface, in this case, the plywood, working both directions. Sight across the paste and remove any hard lumps or foreign particles.
Pick up your chart, start at one side or end of it, and carefully lay it down into the paste, wiping it with the side of your hand as you go to remove as much of the air pockets as you can. Cover the chart with a sheet of kraft paper and working from the middle, in a sunburst pattern using a dry cloth or rag, work out all the bubbles. You will not be able to see them, just feel then through the Kraft paper. When you are sure your chart is down flat in the paste, remove the cover sheet and double check.
Repeat this process with all your charts. Yes paste is water soluble, so you can clean up any dried paste with a wet cloth.
Let this whole thing dry for about twenty four hours before applying your top coat, whatever that may be. The ideal thing would be to weight the charts as they dry with sheets of glass or some other smooth heavy weight. If you mount them properly, weighting them is not a huge issue.
You mentioned not wanting to turn this into a project. You have several choices regarding that. You can make a mess, you can make something you will be proud of, or you could pay someone else to do it for you. I guess you could just dump the whole idea also.
If things are done properly and the results are what you had hoped for, it never really seems like a project at all. When it works out right, it is almost fun.
We get into trouble when we start looking for shortcuts and easy, then it becomes a project.
I know of these things because I am a professional picture framer.
John
