Deluxe Sewing Center

Today -- we take the cabinet all apart again; remove the drawer fronts, all the doors, remove all the hinges and sand everything one more time.  By hand.  Then we clean everything up again, vacuum thoroughly and use a tack cloth to wipe down all the parts to be stained.

The biggest trick to staining furniture is simply attention to detail.  It's not difficult to do, you just have to watch certain things closely.  On a piece like this that uses Frame & Panel construction, we have to be sure we get the stain into all the corners.  I like to keep a few disposable foam brushes on hand for this.  Just dip the tip in the stain and use the chisel point to get the stain where I need it.  I don't like to apply the stain to flat surfaces with foam brushes because they tend to cause air bubbles, I prefer to wipe it on with clean rags and I keep a bin of old blue jeans, tee shirts and rags for just this sort of thing.  Forget the synthetic fabrics, most of those don't work well.  Clean cotton rags work nicely.

Apply a wet coat of the stain to an area -- I like to work one panel at a time.  Work the stain into corners, worm holes, deeper grains, we don't want any light colored streaks glaring out when we're done.  Consult the can of stain you're using before you begin to see how long you need to let the stain set up.  Once the amount of time has elapsed, begin wiping off the excess stain with the grain.  If the wipe-off rag becomes saturated, replace it.

Pay attention to the color as you wipe -- you want to shoot for a consistent color across the whole piece, wiping too hard or too often in one area may remove too much color, reapply the stain and try again while the panel is still wet.  If the entire piece is too light, you will have to apply a second coat, but you will need to wait for the first coat to dry thoroughly first.

Again, pay attention to the corners, get the excess stain out of there.  And watch for weepers; spots where extra stain may have hidden then 'weeps' back out after you've wiped it down.  This is especially problematic in grainy wood like oak.

When you're all done, take another good look at it, looking for problems. It's much easier to fix them now than after the stain has dried.

When you're satisfied, seal up the room and let the stain dry.  Most will need at least 8 hours to set up before any finish coats can be applied.

A note here about staining and finishing "hidden" areas.

Many have been the times where I've stooped down to pick up something and discovered that the under-side of a table or desk was not stained.  Sometimes not even finished, just left bare wood.  I don't hold to that policy.  I can see where it would save time and materials, but I feel that any surface that *may* be visible under ordinary use should be finished.  I do not put as much effort and time into sanding these hidden surfaces, but they should be the same color.

Areas like the inside of the drawer pedestals on this project will not get stained.  This is partly to reduce labor and materials, and partly to prevent making the drawer runners sticky.  Areas like this, that will be seen only if you take the piece of furniture apart, do not need to be the same color.  They will, however, get finished.

In order to keep large solid hardwood parts flat, it is absolutely necessary that they absorb and release humidity from all faces at the same rate.  If the top of this cabinet were to be finished with three coats of lacquer, and the under side left bare, the under side would absorb and release moisture much more quickly than the top, and would therefor expand and contract faster than the top surface.  That, my friends, is what causes warping and cupping.  By applying the same number of coats to all surfaces, the risk of this is greatly reduced.

The drawer runners may be the only exception.  If I am applying a finish that may remain sticky, or get sticky in high temperatures and humidity, I'd tape off the runners to keep them finish free.  But they are so small in cross-section that warping problems don't normally plague them.

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