Poly taking stain up on woodys

[Cavscout9753]

Quick question, I'm applying the poly on some surewoods and I used min wax stain to do a cap. Well as I apply poly its taking up the stain. Not completely, but its lightening it up more than I was hoping. I put the stain on yesterday and it sat all evening, night, and half of today, so say... 18-ish hours. I'm not an expert wood worker so I dont know if this is abnormal, but im guessing I messed something up. Follow up question would be - now that theres a coat of poly on there can I restain? I liked the look of the cap, american walnut, in contrast to these gorgeous surewoods. Thanks for any advice.

[Pat B]

The solvent in the poly reacted with the stain. I used water based poly with good results plus it doesn't have a heavy smell and it is tough.

[Cavscout9753]

Yeah and see I used the poly that Rob D used in his tutorial in the "how to" section but I think I used the wrong stain. Well I guess next time I'll use a different type of stain.  Thanks!

[Rob DiStefano]

when you stain raw wood, allow adequate time for the stain to dry/cure.  then lightly buff with 0000 steel wool, buff with a paper towel, then lightly apply the wipe-on or spray-on polyu.  

unless the stain is a 'shader' (stain mixed with clear) you can't restain what's already been clear coated.

see my woodie crafting tutorial in the 'how-to resources' forum.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Mim Wax makes a product called "PolyShade" It's a poly /stain mixture. each coat you put on gets darker. With some practice you can get it on pretty even, and get just the right hade you are looking for.

[Cavscout9753]

Thanks guys. Yeah Rob I bookmarked your tutorial, an excellent guide. In the end I think it (the stain) just didn't sit long enough. Every other step I followed to the "T". I'm not too bummed, the cap portion is still darker than the rest of the shaft and its not as if its ruined, just not exxxxactly what I was aiming for. The next batch I'll go at it differently. Thats what I like about woodys, always a reason to get some more going! Hahah

[Cavscout9753]

Kirkil- i saw that poly-stain, I hadnt heard of anyone trying it so I just shy'd away. I'm in no condition to go explorin'! Hah

[M60gunner]

I used to have same issue when the shafts were to smooth. I rough them up with 180 grit sandpaper first. Then stain. I let them set overnite also. Then 0000 steel wool. If to light I do another coat of stain.
I learned from woodworking that " pre stain" helps with areas of blotches and light areas as well. I saw a demo on Doug Fir doing this method and it turned out great. He used  polycrilic  for the top coat?
There is some great info on the Min Wax website also.