"Gary" wrote in message
...
For the past what seems like months I have been working on a small
I an so disappointed it this mess. I had a really nice cabinet in the
works
that I was proud of and now its a ****ty brown mess. I have no idea of
how to remedy this mess other than paint it white and stick it in my
garage.

Gary



Well here is my 2 cents worth. First of all at least half of this game is
knowing how to cover your ass when thing go awry.

As far as I know there are 3 analines ,water,alcohol and lacquer ,it sounds
like you were using one of the latter two.watever one you use you must keep
a wet edge throughout the process other wise you will end up with streaks.AS
both lacquer and alcohol dry pretty quickly water alaline is the obvious
choice because it is more controllable . The only problem is water raises
the grain .This then necessitates wetting the piece several times letting it
dry and sanding it out so the "nibs" are eliminated before the stain is
applied . In short analines are fraught with problems their advantage is
they are free of solid pigmentation .I used them years ago but have since
found non grain raising [ngr] stains with little or no added pigment far
more satisfactory many have pretty long open times which eliminates
streaking..currently I use Mohawk ultra stains .

Now looking at your dilemma my suggestion would be to forget bleaching all
together ,that is just going to compound the problem . Take a look on the
can and see what the vehicle is ,lacquer, alcohol or water. which ever one
it is get some of the vehicle soak 4 zeros steel wool in it and scrub off as
much of the stain as you drying off with a clean rag or paper towel.
Continue this until no colorant is deposited on the rag . After the piece is
absolutely dry sand out as much of the remaining as you can ,try and get any
color left at this point as even as you can . At this point you should be
ready to restain .

You mentioned that the maple when stained goes somewhat blotchy. This being
the case and the fact as someone else mentioned the ply veneer will not act
as the solid wood will then the whole thing needs to be sealed first so the
stain does not get into the wood grain , In this case the stain becomes a
glaze . You can use a clear sand and sealer either sprayed or brushed on but
very thinned . Another good sealer is plain thinned shellac although it will
darken the piece and so the glaze will need to be a little lighter to
account for this.Whatever you use put a few coats on and sand them out with
say 180 or perhaps 220 paper.it should feel like silk .Dust off and apply
stain I usually use a clean rag and always keep a wet "edge " for corners
use a brush try and work quickly but cover everything fully .If you have a
stain which stays open for a reasonable time you can always come back and
make minor corrections here and there .areas than end up a little darker
than you desire hit them with a clean rag wetted with the stain vehicle and
pull some of the color out good luck