stain now or later

[BillinGA]

I made a set of bifold closet doors to replace louvered ones. My wife does not like to trying to get the dust out of the slats and wanted something solid with a smooth surface. I stained the plywood panels , stiles, and rails bef ore glue up. My thoughts were the stain ( brushed, not sprayed) would try t o accumulate at the junction of panels and frame if I waited until after as sembly. Show of hands..how many would stain after assembly? They turned out fine...just wondering.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who participate. All others, enjoy your Thursd ay.

[krw]

I "finish" before I make the final cuts. I'm no expert, though.

Thank you. I'll do both. ;-)

[Dr. Deb]

If you were going to stain, which is not a bad idea at all, you might as well tape the tenons and plug the mortises and put the finish on it, at least the first coat, before you do the glue up.

deb

[J. Clarke]

Stain first. Wood moves. If you stain after and the frame expands more than the panels you get visible unstained areas.

[clare]

Another reason is stain doesn'r stick well to glue (actually can't penetrate glue to stain the wood), and glue doesn't stick well to stain, so if you get any glue squease out on unstained wood, no matter how quickly you wipe it off, the stain won't take as well there - leaving a "scar" - and if you stain first and get squease out, the glue comes of more easily as it can't get into the grain as well.

[Leon]

I stain parts that will be difficult to stain after assembly, inset corners and inset panels for example. I often leave the easier outer surfaces unstained until after the clamps come off for good.

[woodchucker]

I think Leon meant

I stain _before_; the parts that will be difficult to stain after assembly.

[Leon]

Was I not clear? ;~)

[krw]

No, he's right, though the language may be ambiguous to some. The parts that will be difficult to stain after assembly, he stains before assembly.

[Leon]

If I had put a comma between stain and after it would be totally wrong.

So! I stain before assembly if parts are going to be difficult to stain after assembly.

Thank you all for you skrew'nee. ;~)

[-MIKE-]

The wrong punctuation, but at least you used some.

[krw]

How so? His punctuation looked fine to me (though perhaps his comma could have been a hyphen).

[-MIKE-]

It was a joke. His sentence is substantially easier to read than certain posters who refuse to use any punctuation at all.

[krw]

I got the joke (it was something to do with cauls, right?) but thought you had a punctuation point, too. ;-)

[Puckdropper]

Leon wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Maybe you need to be water based?

Puckdropper

[Electric Comet]

will the stain alter the effect of gluing

i would check all the data on the stain and see if it would make a difference with the glue adhesion

if it does not make a difference i would stain first

[Scott Lurndal]

I generally will finish the panels before assembly. This will help prevent unfinished portions of the panel appearing when exposed by changes in humidity.