# interior door staining....



## mattrecov (Jun 7, 2008)

hey guys, I just did a couple of interior doors...stripped and restained. One came out really nice, even color, smooth finish, etc. But, on the other one....o boy. The doors are solid core, with veneer on top. The doors appeared to be birch, but my foreman thought they were oak. Here is the procedure I used...what went wrong??

- removed doors from hinges and all hardware
- set up on sawhorses
- applied stripper (SWP super strip)
- waited 15 min 
- scraped with stiff putty knife (only removed clearcoat)
- sanded with random orbital sander, 80 grit, then 150 (this is where the problems began, getting off all the old stain required pretty heavy duty sanding, which, I didnt realize, was cutting down all the way through the veneer)
- wiped down
- applied stain with a rag, then wiped off
- applied sanding sealer after 30 min
- lightly sanded with 220 grit after grain raised
- wiped down
- 2nd coat sanding sealer
- 1rst coat of lacquer (satin oil)
- 2nd coat of lacquer

The door came out all splotchy, with multiple lighter areas, that I couldnt fix even with lightly sanding the spots to remove the lacquer and reapplying stain.....is there any way to avoid this in the future? Is there any way to fix this? Thanks guys


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## dgordo4ut (Jun 19, 2008)

hey, sounds like you did alot of prep work. i am working on some doors now. they look good now, just few scratches here and there. what condition were the doors in prior to your refinish.


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## kingcotrader (Apr 22, 2008)

sometimes soft woods need a conditioner such as benite in order to stain evenly... however, dont spray it... learned the hard way


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## AALory (Mar 6, 2008)

"sometimes soft woods need a conditioner such as benite in order to stain evenly"

Agreed. Strippers are nasty. The wood needs to be revived quite often after stripping.


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## Ron 2 (Jun 27, 2008)

*Hmmm...*



mattrecov said:


> hey guys, I just did a couple of interior doors...stripped and restained. One came out really nice, even color, smooth finish, etc. But, on the other one....o boy. The doors are solid core, with veneer on top. The doors appeared to be birch, but my foreman thought they were oak. Here is the procedure I used...*what went wrong*??
> 
> - removed doors from hinges and all hardware
> - set up on sawhorses
> ...


I bolded three statements; one is your question, the other is your answer.
The third bolded statement?

Don't sand through the veneer.

To fix it? Either: A: Completely strip the remaining veneer from the old door (taking care not to put big debits in the substrate) then re-veneer it in the same species and finish it to match; or B: Buy a new door in the same species, machine and hang it, then finish it to match.

In your defense, perhaps the substrate was poorly levelled to begin with (factory defective) and the orbital took the "high spots" down far quicker?

It's always a good idea to check closely for such problems prior to "wailing away" with the 80 grit, as you now know!

Call it a valuable learning experience:whistling2:

Cheers, Ron


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## gqmixmaster (Apr 22, 2009)

We always seem to have problems with staining veneer doors. We have tried wipe stains and spray stains and there always seems to be stains that come through or sanding scratches or glue spots. 

For prep we sand with 180 sandpaper over the whole door, is there a better way to prep the doors to prevent these issues from coming up when the stain is applied? 

What do you guys do usually with a new veneer door from a factory?

we have 8 doors in our shop right now and have the same problem again - any insight as soon as possible would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! 
Ryan


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## aaron61 (Apr 29, 2007)

That is the nature of the beast with these doors.we try to look them over as carefully as possible BEFORE staining but there will always be those that are missed.I prefer using 220 sanding with the grain,of course,never use an orbital,always by hand.The scratches and glue can sometimes be worked out with some 80 first then the 220.Here's the trick for scratches that you see after staining.Dip a corner of your folded 220 in the stain and work it over the scratch while sanding with the grain.This works 9 times out of 10. You can also try some hot thinner like MEK or denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner to remove the glue.You just have to make sure you go back over these areas with the 220 stain trick!!


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## JHill (May 13, 2010)

mattrecov said:


> hey guys, I just did a couple of interior doors...stripped and restained. One came out really nice, even color, smooth finish, etc. But, on the other one....o boy. The doors are solid core, with veneer on top. The doors appeared to be birch, but my foreman thought they were oak. Here is the procedure I used...what went wrong??
> 
> - removed doors from hinges and all hardware
> - set up on sawhorses
> ...


Where to begin? First off puting stripper on, and leaving for 15 minutes, then scraping, doesnt mean all the varnish is off, you might have to apply multiple times. Which would have helped in removing the stain also. Then using 80 grit with an orbital? Big mistake your going to burn thru the venear fast as hell. And once you do that your S O L. 100 grit is the perfect paper to use working with the grain. All by hand.
Anyway lets pretend, its stripped corectly,and is ready for stain.Then it's a good idea to let the stain dry alot more than 30 minutes, before applying sanding sealer, we let set over night, If you don't you'll be pulling stain off with you brush and or roller, which will make it blotchy, unless your spraying, which its still a good idea to let set overnight anyway. Then you can sand the sealer. I hope your spraying, if indeed you are using laquer,because of laquers flashpoint it is impossible to brush, and will be flashy as all get out


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## aaron61 (Apr 29, 2007)

Oh yes,by the way I never would have taken on stripping these. My #7 post refers only to new doors


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

gqmixmaster said:


> For prep we sand with 180 sandpaper over the whole door, is there a better way to prep the doors to prevent these issues from coming up when the stain is applied?


Wipe the doors down with mineral spirits after you've sanded it - any glue spots will become very apparent when you wipe over them. 

A washcoat works too.


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## gqmixmaster (Apr 22, 2009)

thank you for the responses. I sanded the door down completely with a pneumatic feather edger (recommended by the cabinet shops) at a 150 grit. It took out all the glue spots. I then hand sanded the door with 180 to reduce any swirls and then spray stained the door and voila there are still weird stains and cross grain marks all over the veneer raised panel.

I don't know how much more sanding a door can take, I would never sand cross grain and all the veneer glue joints are clean, just these weird spots on the panels. So back to sanding, I will try the paint thinner on the veneer and see if these weird spots are visible before I stain.


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## JHill (May 13, 2010)

If you've sanded through the veneer like you stated, that's probably the funny marks your seeing, won't be no hiding them. You can try to blend, by sanding in some stain real lightly in those areas. Without being able to see what you got it's hard to offer exact advice. Good Luck!


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## gqmixmaster (Apr 22, 2009)

I have been told that there may have been glue coming through the veneer?! The door rep said his doors should only take a light sand - They are $1500/door! so he may be gettin new ones made now. We sanded them perfectly, it seems it is just a run of bad luck with these veneer doors...


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## JHill (May 13, 2010)

Getting new ones is good news. MEK may have helped wipe away the glue. I hope everything works out.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

With that much prep they had to be very expensive doors or historic to not have been replaced. If they were flat you could have thrown new veneer on faster and cheaper as well.


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## TheRogueBristle (Mar 19, 2010)

edit: wrong thread


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