help with wood finish...

[hyiu]

Hi All:

I would like to ask a question about finishing a wood cab... I bought some brich wood for making a cab from scratch and would like to stain it to cherry wood color... (closer to furniture like).... I would like to know... After staining... is there something I could put on to let it have that layer of thick, protecting, shiny layer of clear stuff ??....

of course I will wait enough time for each layer of paint to dry thoroughly.... but if I put like "lacquer" on top of wood stain stuffs.... will they react with each other even if they're dried ??

thanks for any info....    

[spidermonkey]

Don't use lacquer for clearcoating. It is very brittle and can eventually crack and also chips very easily because its so hard. (too hard) Use polyurathane clear coat. It is much more flexible and durable and won't chip as easily. To get a nice thick shiny finish you'll want to apply 3 to 4 coats and between coats let it dry overnight and go over it with some fine steel wool. This will smooth out the polyurathane and get rid of any dust particles or any other little boogers that give you that slight bumpy feeling when you run your fingers across the finish. After steel wooling the whole cabinet use a tack rag to remove all the dust and particles left behind from the steel wool. A couple of days after you apply your last coat, go over it one last time with the finest steel wool you can find. Dust it off and go over it with some furnature polish. Now you can sit back and admire the awesome finish on your cab . If you don't want it super shiny then use satin polyurathane instead of gloss. Use the same procedures for satin as you would for gloss. My guess is that you probably used "Minwax" brand as your choice of stain. If so then use Minwax polyurathane on top of it. Or whatever brand stain you used make sure that you use the same brand polyurathane. Forget about lacquer. It is a thing of the past   . Do not rush the clearcoating process. It should take you a good week to achieve quality results. You'll probably get ideas from others as well.  The process that I explained to you isn't written in stone and there is always someone who may disagree but I have found that this way has given me excellent results and I hope it does the same for you
Best of luck!
S.M.

[neuromancer]

Hi All:
. I bought some brich wood for making a cab from scratch and would like to stain it to cherry wood color...

If it were me, after staining I would put an oil finish on it. My favorite is Tung oil. Three or four coats with steel wool, followed by paste wax. The finish won't be quite as shiny as polyurethane, but it will be a longer lasting finish that won't show scratches. If it gets any scuffs, you just put some more oil on it. Oil is also a very forgiving finish, because it can't run, crack,  bubble, or collect dust. A lot of really fine furniture is finished with oil.

Whatever finish you go with, try it out on some scraps first. They will all change appearance as they dry. Remember that colors are more intense when they cover large areas too!

Bob