refinish help

[bumhead]

I have an old solid wood filing cabinet I got for free. Nothing special. Soft wood. In bad shape, old stain and poly type finish looks terrible. Several bad places need repair. I took it completely apart, stripped the finish, and sanded it to

220 grit. Repaired several parts with new wood. Made a new top, and used wood puty in several bad places. Reassembled with screws and glue instead of nails. Used ebony stain hoping to cover the differences the stain would cover with the old wood, new wood used in the repairs, and the repairs made with the puty. Looks TERRIBLE. Now I plan to just paint it a dark brown. I don't know what else to do to make it look presentable. Question is..... do I need to strip it again before I paint it? Any other suggestions or help would be apperciated.

Thanks, George aka Bumhead

[Larry Blanchard]

Wipe on a coat or two of SealCoat and follow with the paint.

[SonomaProducts.com]

[Steve Turner]

I wouldn't bother. Go over the stain with a couple of coats of shellac based white primer (Kilz or Zinsser) then paint over that. You might sand the stained surface again with 220 just to be safe, but I wouldn't worry about getting all the way down to clean bare wood; that's what the shellac primer should save you from having to do.