Well, since you are being bold about Minwax, I will be, too.

I don't find that much wrong with Minwax products. Most of the time
people have problems with their finishes it is their fault, plain and
simple. Over the years I don't think you will find me bashing them on
this forum. I don't prefer their finishes, but they are *much* better
than some of the higher dollar finishes out there. For example, their
polyurethane is just about bullet proof.

I digress.

As far as Polyshades is concerned, I think you nailed it down
perfectly. FWIW, I couldn't agree more.

You must put PS over an existing finish such as lacquer based or
shellac based primer. Putting it over plain wood is suicide as the
grabby, porous nature of raw wood will take all the finish (and
color!) unevenly. The person that applies it to raw wood doesn't
stand any chance of a good end product.

You can't second coat that stuff. If you think coat #1 was bad,
wow... try a second coat. You get a different color, streaking, and
overall something really awful. To my knowledge there is no way to
fix it.

I had to finish a small box for a friend of mine and I couldn't figure
out how to get the finish he wanted. It was a color that matched a
store that was really popular at the time called "The Bombay Shop" or
something along those lines. The colors were nice, but the furniture
was all MDF with that color on it. It was a proprietary color, and
apparently Minwax struck up a deal to sell it so the home guy could
match the knick knacks purchased there.

I chickened out. I sprayed the box with shellac. Sanded, then sprayed
again. I changed over to a fine 1.2mm tip from my high pressure gun,
and sprayed PS which I had cut down by about 30% (that sir, is
cowardice!) to make sure I didn't get too much on too fast. It was
like shooting water. It layed out nice, and I put about 4 coats on
it, and even shaded the edges darker like the store stuff.

It came out looking nice, but WHAT A PAIN. It isn't anywhere near
worth the effort it takes to use that stuff. A **novice** could have
sealed the box, dyed it, shaded the edges and then covered with a nice
lacquer in half the time. I do mean that literally. Never again for
me.

(Note to self; no talking about projects when drinking bourbon with
friends.)

Yet the my commercial rep at HD tells me that sell the hell out of
that "one step stuff they advertise on TV". Go figure.

Robert