Hi all,

I've been working with wood slowing over the last couple years. Most of
the work I have done was with screws for joinery and very poor
finishing techniques such as no sanding and staining only.

Last summer I worked on a new albeit small entertainment stand. I
sanded and poly'd the finish with sanding after each coat followed by
wax. It turned out fairly nice, but not showroom quality.

So I have tons of questions(but keep in mind I only have Home Depot as
my supplier):

1. Which is preferable: dowels or biscuits for joining? Plus glue
correct?

2. How do I get a mirror finish with stain or paint?

I use pine because it's so cheap and easily available. My technique
involves sanding with 100 grit and then with something around 200 grit
or higher to get the wood to feel like silk, next I apply a wood
conditioner (I use all minwax products I should add), then after the
recommended wait time I apply stain (regular stain not the stain and
poly together mix), I wipe that down after I get the tone I like and
wait 24 hours to dry. Then I apply the Minwax Polyurethane with a foam
brush and dry for 24 hours, sometimes, I will admit, that spots are
still tacky to the touch. I sand this with steel wool (I think it's 00
might be 000), and apply another coat. I do this 3 times then apply the
Minwax paste wax following the directions. Now after all this work when
you look at the piece in the sun you can still see very fine/small
valleys in the piece.

Should I be waiting longer between coats? I'm very impatient should I
use the Minwax Polycrylic instead? Also what about paint? I want to
learn how to get a painted finished that looks like is was baked on
like the finish on a car.

3. How do the other finishing products work? All the oils for example,
I've only used the above poly and stain, plus I used the One Step a few
times ( I know some people don't like the One Step, but I thought the
finish was much richer and had more depth, but still had the same
problems "little valleys."

4. What is proper technique for cleaning brushes? I have stayed away
from them and wonder if this is part of my problem. I use rags for
stain and foam brushes for the poly and pitch them after each use.

5. On to joinery, I've been looking at biscuit cutters and I understand
how cuts are made in the edge of boards (say a shelf of a book shelf)
but how do you cut biscuits in say the upright parts of the bookshelf?
Does the metal "guide" thing on a biscuit cutter rotate 90 degrees up
so the front of the cutter is almost completely flush with the board
face?

I'm making a new dining room table that I want to have a very thick
top. Which one of these is more sound:

Using a planer on 2x10's and jointing them with biscuits to make the
top OR using 2x4's on a jointer then jointing them with biscuits?

I own most of the woodworkers tools although they were passed on to me
from my grandfather, the one thing I don't own is a planer or biscuit
cutter. I'm getting the biscuit cutter for Christmas and will probably
buy the planar in the spring if I can afford it (moneys tight as I'm in
college)

Eventually I want to get into making solid front doors:

6. What types of wood are these usually made from? Oak? How are they
jointed together? Same as above with biscuits and glue?

7. Glueing-- What do you use to remove the excess overflow? I tried
just a rag but the glue doesn't completely come away, and then screws
up the evenness of the stain being applied after.

Lastly,

8. I did some painting over wood and eventually some spots started to
"leak" through it was white paint and these spots were turning yellow.
Any cure for this?

Thanks in advance,

Matt