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Today we clean the shop up thoroughly, tack off all the parts and set up to stain everything.
We'll need a brush for applying stain, plenty of clean cloths for wiping off the excess stain, neoprene gloves to keep the stain off my hands (the solvents used melt latex gloves), small wooden rails for laying parts on to dry, mineral spirits for pre-treating end grain and cleaning up, and of course the stain.
Work with surfaces laid flat whenever possible. Brush a good coat of stain over the whole surface. On large parts, like the cabinet case, work on one section at a time. After the part is coated, allow it to sit for 5 minutes; longer if it's cool or damp out. It's both today so we'll give it 7 minutes before wiping off the excess stain.
This is the tricky part; you need to get the excess off or it won't dry and you'll get dark splotches that hide the wood, but you don't want to rub so hard or long that you remove too much stain, leaving an uneven coat that will not look good and will not be the color you were expecting.
Tight corners, nooks, the small decorative shoulders on the door frames and drawer fronts all need special attention to get the excess stain out of the corners. For this I use a dry 1½" stiff bristled brush. This works much better than trying to cram a corner of a cloth in there.
On parts like the doors that will be stained on both sides, I do the backs first, so that if the support rails leave any kind of marks in the stain, it will be in the least noticeable area possible.
When one wiping rag gets saturated, toss it out and get another. Rubbing the stain around on the surface because your rag is no longer picking it up will produce unsatisfactory results.
Work carefully, and pay attention to the details. Don't rush; give the stain time to set up or you'll just wipe it all off and have to do it again.
If a glue spot got past you in sanding and is now glaring at you through the stain, use a small piece of 220 wet & dry sand paper to slurry-sand the spot using the stain as the lubricant.
 When you're done, quit. Don't fuss over things now. If you've done a good job up till now, fiddling with minor imperfections will only make a mess. It's better to wait until the stain is dry (or even until the first clear coat is on, depending on the problem) before trying to "fix" it.
Clean out the brushes, seal up the stain can, dispose of the rags properly, turn out the lights and lock the door. Time to go home.
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