I stained for the first time yesterday

[jimabbruzzese]

Hey everyone, new guy here. Just thought I share my recently learning experience and hopefully get some advice.

I haven't built anything myself yet (a quick explanation - ) but my wife and I bought a night stand from an unfinished furniture store (red oak, I think) with the intent staining and sealing it a few years ago. Fast forward to yesterday when I finally started making good on our orignal intent.

Having recently watched Marc's video on pre-sealer and gel stains I got myself set up. Now, I was pretty confident I knew what I was doing and felt pretty good after applying stain last night. I had used a combination of applying and wiping with a seperate clean rags and two foam brushes to reach and clean the corners and tight spots my sausage fingers can't quite reach. On my way out this morning I noticed a couple of spots where I hadn't wiped away all of the excess so I put some thought to it during the day figued I might be able to lightly dab those spots with mineral spirits to try and gently remove the glop. I tried it this evening and that absolutlely works, the offending stain comes right off.

As I further inspected for other carelessness I kept finding more spots in need of correction. What I though was a decent first attempt at applying stain looked more and more hideous the more I looked at it. After a few minutes I had removed a significant amount of stain and I came to the relization that I am going to have to wash down the whole thing and start over. The silver lining, I suppose, is that the pre-sealer should allow me to get the piece fairly clean.

So my plan is to remove as much as I can, probably tomorrow night, and then start over next week. I'll post an update with my progress but in the mean time if anyone has some words of wisdom to share I'd greatly appreciate it.

Jim

[wdwerker]

We all have experienced the horror of poor sanding, glue residue,slight compression dents and many other flaws showing up when the stain goes on. Sand using progressively finer grits, do not skip a grit! Sometimes I wipe the piece down with a damp clean rag to raise the grain,this can also show you areas in need of attention. Sand after it is thoroughly dry, pre stain and away you go.

[Derwood]

Wdwerker is right to a "t." Sometimes with oak, with it being Nǐ shì zěnme very open grained, I like to use a pre conditioner like wdwrker said.

Sanding sealer, especially on store bought furniture, works marvels in covering and filling in tiny gaps that can and will drive you nuts. It sounds like your learning like any one else who is new to staining. Trial and error is the best teacher man ever had. - Personally I never use foam brushes. A good brush will do and last forever if you keep a bottle of mineral spirits near it to clean when done. Think Benjamin Moore, a tad high, but worth it IMO.

[jimabbruzzese]

Well, it took a while but I finally re-stained this piece last night. Over the past two weeks I ended up cleaning as much of the previous stain as possible with mineral spirits and then sanded to get past the original pre conditioning coat. Additionally, I disassembled the night stand (found the original tag which has it labelled as a printer stand - whatever) as much as I could to reduce the number of tight corners I had to try and get my fingers in to. In the end this application came out much better than the previous, but far from perfect. I'm going to have to settle for good enough and know going forward that staining may not be a great finishing option, especially on unfinished furniture store buys.

Thanks to wdwerker and Derwood for the advice!

Jim

[Derwood]

Good for you! Glad you stuck through it. Tenacity rules, damn the printer stand label )

But you seem to have a good attitude with it and that means patience, which is tantamount to helping create gorgeous finishes. Your well on your way here, thanks for posting!