First Cabinet Made w/MK V

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:51 pm

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charlese · Post by **charlese** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:59 pm

Super job, Dave!!:D Excellent construction!! Thanks for showing us!!

First project like this is always the best and exciting. It's a good thing that you find your cabinet to be not perfect, but yet passable. It gives you something to strive for. But next time, if you don't tell anyone, they will never know! Ive studied your excellent photos and can find no imperfections. They must be small!

Incidentally, I have also had staining issues with poplar. Don't understand why! Bet there is a magazine article somewhere that tells us how to overcome this issue. Built a privacy screen out of poplar and wound up putting on a coat of stain and following it with a darker stain that was applied with rags. Then the darker stain was wiped off to look like darker grain(faux grain). Looks pretty good and fooled my son. He even mentioned he liked the grain and asked what kind of wood it was. He can be excused, as he is a mechanical engineer, not a wood guy.

horologist · Post by **horologist** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:14 pm

Dave,
Great cabinet, seems a shame to paint it. You might try aniline dye for the stain. I have had good results with the water based dyes in the past. You need to use distilled water instead of tap or your water chemistry can cause some unexpected results. Wet the wood with a little water and let dry to raise the grain, then sand lightly before applying the dye. The alcohol based dyes don't raise the grain but are not supposed to be as color fast.

I have also purchased a couple of bottles of Trans Tint dye but haven't had time to complete the project or experiment on scrap. If splotches still occur you can mix the Trans Tint in with some shellac.

Troy

tnerb · Post by **tnerb** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:00 pm

Dave,

A thin wash coat (50/50) of shellac and alcohol should control the blotching on the Poplar and Pine.

Great job on the cabinet.

Brent

tryinhard · Post by **tryinhard** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:35 pm

Nice job. Where did you use the molder?

Thanks, Mike

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:37 am

NICE looking cabinet ya built there. Don't tel about the less tham perfect, most people wood knot know.

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:50 pm

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dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:20 pm

tnerb wrote:Dave,

A thin wash coat (50/50) of shellac and alcohol should control the blotching on the Poplar and Pine.

Great job on the cabinet.

Brent

Great Tip. I build a lot with poplar and the one big shortcoming is that it takes stain so poorly. I'll try this on my next poplar job.

tdubnik · Post by **tdubnik** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:44 am

judaspre1982 wrote:Hi Jim, my test boards were the cut offs from my center panels. They were planed down to 5/8 thickness and sanded down to 220 grit sandpaper. I used Minwax Chesnut colored stain and I had some areas that came out much darker. They looked like streaks. I rubbed down the boards with a cotton rag to see if I could even it out but they stayed darker. Also I cut a sample of half a raised panel. The panels are cut at a 15deg angle and the area where the end grain is expossed comes up much darker. I even tried to sand the end grain down to 320 grit. I think I read somewhere that you have to use shellac or wood conditioner first to get an even color. Any tips would be appreciated. In the meantime I will do some research on staining. Thanks-----Dave

I have also had this problem but have a method now that seems to work very well. I am currently working on a cherry blanket chest and cherry is notorious for blotching. My formula for preventing this goes like this.

First I sand to 150/180. I then wipe on 2 two coats of 1 lb. cut shellac and pay particular attention to end grain and areas that "soak" up the shellac. I sand this lightly with 220. I then use General Finishes gel stain which does an amazing job over the shellac.