Staining Maple Issue
 

Hello all, I have a staining question.
I have a maple bar rail that I recently installed, and I'm having a staining issue. After gluing it together and mounting it to the bar top, I finished sanded it to 400 grit. When I stained it, the curve section of the bar was much darker than the rest of the bar, but I could live with it. When I used a polyurethane top coat a day later, it ended up having a goop-ing effect that I then sanded down. I ended up sanding down the bar back to the wood (400 grit), and re-stained again. Now it's even lighter than before.

What can I do? Should I use a higher grit? multiple applications don't seem to matter.

Staining Maple Issue
 

On 3/12/2018 6:14 PM, wrote:
Hello all, I have a staining question.
I have a maple bar rail that I recently installed, and I'm having a staining issue. After gluing it together and mounting it to the bar top, I finished sanded it to 400 grit. When I stained it, the curve section of the bar was much darker than the rest of the bar, but I could live with it. When I used a polyurethane top coat a day later, it ended up having a goop-ing effect that I then sanded down. I ended up sanding down the bar back to the wood (400 grit), and re-stained again. Now it's even lighter than before.

What can I do? Should I use a higher grit? multiple applications don't seem to matter.



Stop sanding at 180 and use a prestain/wood conditioner. Maple is
notorious for being difficult to stain and getting even
coverage/darkness. You may need to apply two coats of stain.

Staining Maple Issue
 

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Hate to say it, but I would strip the rail completely, sand 80 - 120 - 150 then re-stain. While I don't usually use a conditioner, that particular piece of wood might call for it..

Staining Maple Issue
 

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Gel stains help some, too.

Hate to say it, but I would strip the rail completely, sand 80 - 120 - 150 then re-stain. While I don't usually use a conditioner, that particular piece of wood might call for it..

Staining Maple Issue
 

Staining Maple Issue
 

On 3/16/2018 10:27 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
wrote in :

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where
I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second
spray is a light coat for colour.

Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of projects, on
white oak. I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

A friend built a maple table for a customer and sanded, stained,
varnished and sanded to bare wood 3.5 times. It never looked bad until
he varnished.

Ultimately he bought a better sander and that solved half of his issues.






Hate to say it, but I would strip the rail completely, sand 80 - 120 - 150 then re-stain.
While I don't usually use a conditioner, that particular piece of wood might call for it..

Staining Maple Issue
 

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in
:

On 3/16/2018 10:27 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
wrote in
:

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a
spray/wipe/spray process where
I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess
away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of
projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.

A friend built a maple table for a customer and sanded, stained,
varnished and sanded to bare wood 3.5 times. It never looked
bad until he varnished.

Ultimately he bought a better sander and that solved half of his
issues.

Staining Maple Issue
 

Doug Miller wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in
:

On 3/16/2018 10:27 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
wrote in
:

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a
spray/wipe/spray process where
I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess
away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of
projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.


I to try not to stain. :-)

Staining Maple Issue
 

On 3/24/2018 12:16 AM, Leon wrote:

Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of
projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.


I to try not to stain. :-)





Same here. Good latex paint covers in one coat.

Staining Maple Issue
 

On 3/24/2018 8:50 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 3/24/2018 12:16 AM, Leon wrote:

Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question.Â* I have only used dyes on a couple of
projects, on white oak.Â* I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple?Â* Is that the solution?

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.


I to try not to stain. :-)





Same here.Â* Good latex paint covers in one coat.

Sure does! ;~)

Staining Maple Issue
 

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 15:26:40 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 3/24/2018 8:50 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 3/24/2018 12:16 AM, Leon wrote:

Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question.* I have only used dyes on a couple of
projects, on white oak.* I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple?* Is that the solution?

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.


I to try not to stain. :-)





Same here.* Good latex paint covers in one coat.

Sure does! ;~)

Easy cleanup, too. What's not to like?