I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

Your advice is sincerely appreciated.
Angela

"Goog" wrote in message
...
I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

Your advice is sincerely appreciated.
Angela

you didn't tell us what you steps you took. did you follow the directions on
the can? it is high humidity there? did you provide a good air flow over it?

charlie wrote:
"Goog" wrote in message
...
I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

Your advice is sincerely appreciated.
Angela

you didn't tell us what you steps you took. did you follow the directions on
the can? it is high humidity there? did you provide a good air flow over it?

Not to mention I've never heard of "Minimax" stain -- I presume that
was/is supposed to be "Minwax" which is a brand, not a specific product.

So, w/o knowing anything whatsoever about either the product or the
application, it's pretty hard to give any advice that could be known to
be applicable.

--

Goog wrote:
I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

This is oil base stain? If so, it isn't like paint...you brush it on, let
it sit a bit and then wipe it off. Sounds like you didn't wipe it off. You
can...

1. Wipe it down thoroughly with paint thinner to try to remove excess.

2. Do nothing and see if it dries (it will - eventually - but not hard).

3. Remove it and start over.



--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Aug 14, 12:40*pm, Goog wrote:
I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. *It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

Your advice is sincerely appreciated.
Angela

This may be a little simplistic, but did you sand your old desk first,
or
did you just apply stain to the existing finish?

Cindy Hamilton

On Aug 14, 11:40*am, Goog wrote:
I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. *It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

Your advice is sincerely appreciated.
Angela

What is indoor humidity, is it humid or air conditioned .

on 8/14/2009 5:14 PM (ET) ransley wrote the following:
On Aug 14, 11:40 am, Goog wrote:

I stained my old desk with Home Depot's Minimax stain. It has been
two days already and it's still a little damp.

What did I do wrong? I thought the stain would dry out overnight.

Is there anyway can I make it dry faster since I'm planning to put a
couple of clear coat on it.

Your advice is sincerely appreciated.
Angela


What is indoor humidity, is it humid or air conditioned .


Maybe it was a metal desk with a laminate top. :-)

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

I apologize for not providing enough info. I'm new to home repair.

1. The brand of the stain is Minwax (yellow can) from Home Depot.
2. It's oil base.
3. I lightly sanded the old desk before applied the new stain.
4. I used a rag to apply the stain but didn't wipe it out real real
dry.
5. The desk is inside my condo and the temp is set at 78 degree.

I saw Home Depot sells some type of polyurethane (water based) and it
said "quick dry".

1. Should I go ahead and apply the clear coat on (even the wood is
still a little wet).
2. Or should I wait until it dries out completely completely before
put the clear coat on?

Thanks so much to those who replied. I appreciate it.

I guess I just leave it alone and it will dry eventually as one of the
posters suggested.

"Goog" wrote

I apologize for not providing enough info. I'm new to home repair.

Thats ok! We all were at some stage and most of us know only some aspects,
not all.

1. The brand of the stain is Minwax (yellow can) from Home Depot.
2. It's oil base.

I've not used the brand but my husband has. He says it will be tacky for
about a week then solidly dry. Just let it be for now is what he says.
Anything else you do now, will muck it up.

3. I lightly sanded the old desk before applied the new stain.

This may be related to it. Don and I normally take it down totally to bare
wood unless we want a slightly 'distressed look' to an old solid piece (in
shich case a few minor bits of the old stain at the hard to reach spots
works well).

4. I used a rag to apply the stain but didn't wipe it out real real
dry.

Same here but used brush with thin coats (2).

5. The desk is inside my condo and the temp is set at 78 degree.

If you can set it outside without mucking up the finish, it will dry faster
but it's not hurting anything where it is. I'd leave it be for a week.

I saw Home Depot sells some type of polyurethane (water based) and it
said "quick dry".

Relatively. Do not add this now, wait for the stain to hard seal.

1. Should I go ahead and apply the clear coat on (even the wood is
still a little wet).
2. Or should I wait until it dries out completely completely before
put the clear coat on?

Wait til it dries totally.

Goog wrote:
I apologize for not providing enough info. I'm new to home repair.


2. It's oil base.
3. I lightly sanded the old desk before applied the new stain.


What were you sanding, wood or the old finish? Stain is meant to be applied
to bare wood.
____________


I saw Home Depot sells some type of polyurethane (water based) and it
said "quick dry".

It is "quick dry" only because it is water base.
______________

1. Should I go ahead and apply the clear coat on (even the wood is
still a little wet).

ABSOLUTELY NOT!
________________

2. Or should I wait until it dries out completely completely before
put the clear coat on?

Ther oil in oil based stain/paint/whatever is linseed oil. Linseed oil
doesn't dry in the sense of liquid evaporating; instead, the oil cures.
Even when cured, linseed oil isn't hard. Water - as in water base poly -
and oil don't mix. Oh, you *can* apply water base poly after the oil is
completely cured but in your case it is impossible to say when that might
be - could be months - as no one knows how much stain you put on.

You *might* be able to put on oil base poly soon, again, depending on how
much stain you put on. If you can dampen a rag with paint thinner and
remove stain then you should not.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

cshenk wrote:
"Goog" wrote
....

1. The brand of the stain is Minwax (yellow can) from Home Depot.
2. It's oil base.

I've not used the brand but my husband has. He says it will be tacky
for about a week then solidly dry. Just let it be for now is what he says.
Anything else you do now, will muck it up.

Again, "Minwax" is a brand; they have a large number of products and
many (most????) of those are in various variations of yellow cans so
_still_ if you want some answers that are pertinent to the actual case
you need to provide sufficient information...

Chances are (but as noted not guaranteed) the product is the "Wood
Finish" stain; at least the gel formulation is also in yellow, others
might be as well, I don't recall otomh...

3. I lightly sanded the old desk before applied the new stain.

This may be related to it. Don and I normally take it down totally to
bare wood unless we want a slightly 'distressed look' to an old solid
piece (in shich case a few minor bits of the old stain at the hard to
reach spots works well).

That undoubtedly is very highly related -- if there's finish left
there's no place for the solvent to be absorbed into the wood pores so
the entire process has to be from the surface. Depending on what the
original finish was (varnish, poly, shellac, lacquer, ...) the solvent
in the stain may well have dissolved/softened it and mixed leaving what
is anybody's guess as to what the characteristics of that mixture are.

In general, such things lead to a gummy mixture that doesn't have very
good drying properties so I'm not at all surprised in that case it
hasn't dried quickly.

4. I used a rag to apply the stain but didn't wipe it out real real
dry.
....

And that's a problem both from the drying and from a potential problem
w/ the topcoat down the road. Oil stains are designed for the pigments
to be absorbed into the pores in the wood, not to be left deposited on
the surface like a paint or solid-stain. If there's a significant layer
of pigment left on the surface likely one will have trouble w/ a topcoat
in several ways--first, it will probably redissolve some of the
pigments and carry them into the finish which tends to "muddy" the
appearance and secondly since the product isn't designed as a paint
layer the pigment doesn't contain binders to make it "stick". As such,
chances are high that the topcoat surface will not adhere for long term.

I saw Home Depot sells some type of polyurethane (water based) and it
said "quick dry".

Relatively. Do not add this now, wait for the stain to hard seal.

1. Should I go ahead and apply the clear coat on (even the wood is
still a little wet).
2. Or should I wait until it dries out completely completely before
put the clear coat on?

Wait til it dries totally.

And whatever you do, make sure it is listed as being compatible w/ the
specific product you did use. Not all water-based finishes are
recommended over oil and particularly w/ the (apparent) mixing you
already have don't make it even more of a polyglot...

Here's a link to the Minwax site for some pointers...

http://www.minwax.com/how_to/basics_of_wood_finishing/

I personally like the original Minwax products that includes the Wood
Finish stain and the Antique Oil Finish; I'm not as fond of their poly's
and definitely do not like the combination products.

What to use depends also on what kind of a surface you're after and what
the actual wood is and the existing finish.

I'd suggest going to the Minwax site and reading the FAQ and usage
guides, etc., for the specific product as a first next step.

Not being able to see it to judge, very specific advice is hard, but
from the description if presented w/ the piece I'd venture my next step
would be to take a rag and wet it with the stain and work on rubbing it
out to remove the excess layer from the top and then see how that acts.
It will be very hard to rub initially, but if you can salvage it, at
one point all of a sudden it will work much more easily. If that
doesn't work well after a go, I'd likely go to a thinned version using
some thinner as lubricant. Either way, what you need to do is to get it
down to the layer of what was absorbed.

At that point you'll have to judge whether the look is ok or not--if
it's blotchy because of existing finish it's likely the only real
solution will be to start over and sand it down to bare wood or at least
to remove the existing finish uniformly.

--


--

dpb wrote:
....
from the description if presented w/ the piece I'd venture my next step
would be to take a rag and wet it with the stain and work on rubbing it
out to remove the excess layer from the top and then see how that acts.
It will be very hard to rub initially, but if you can salvage it, at
one point all of a sudden it will work much more easily. If that
doesn't work well after a go, I'd likely go to a thinned version using
some thinner as lubricant. Either way, what you need to do is to get it
down to the layer of what was absorbed.
....
And, if the amount left was really quite heavy, as much as I hate steel
wool for the mess it leaves behind, there's always the expedient of
using 4-ought s-wool dipped w/ the stain or thinner...

--