I've bought two unfinished oak veneer interior doors (Jeld-Wen).
Neither stained well; splotches around the rail/stile glue lines with
some extending out over the face.

Is there something to clean these doors with prior to staining? I
don't want to sand the veneer too vigorously.

I had a problem with a fiberglass door.

I took off as much stain as I could with brush cleaner and then restained
with a gel stain by Old Masters. Looked great when redone.

The minwax gel stain made a mess for me.


"Magenta" wrote in message
...
I've bought two unfinished oak veneer interior doors (Jeld-Wen).
Neither stained well; splotches around the rail/stile glue lines with
some extending out over the face.

Is there something to clean these doors with prior to staining? I
don't want to sand the veneer too vigorously.

"Magenta" wrote in message
...
I've bought two unfinished oak veneer interior doors (Jeld-Wen).
Neither stained well; splotches around the rail/stile glue lines with
some extending out over the face.

Is there something to clean these doors with prior to staining? I
don't want to sand the veneer too vigorously.



Sand with 220 grit. The apply a pre-stain conditioner or mineral spirits to
avoid splotches.

On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:33:03 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:


"Magenta" wrote in message
.. .
I've bought two unfinished oak veneer interior doors (Jeld-Wen).
Neither stained well; splotches around the rail/stile glue lines with
some extending out over the face.

Is there something to clean these doors with prior to staining? I
don't want to sand the veneer too vigorously.



Sand with 220 grit. The apply a pre-stain conditioner or mineral spirits to
avoid splotches.


I think it's glue. So the mineral spirits are probably a good idea.

And what is a pre-stain conditioner? What would I look for in the
store?

And do either affect my choice of stains?

On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:16:01 -0500, "Art"
wrote:

I had a problem with a fiberglass door.

I took off as much stain as I could with brush cleaner and then restained
with a gel stain by Old Masters. Looked great when redone.

The minwax gel stain made a mess for me.


I've never used a gel stain. Is there a special technique for these?

I'm using Varathane woodstain, brush on and wipe with clean cloth (two
coats), then three coats of Varathane water based poly