Staining a cab that previously had art?

[Well Fed Games]

OK, so I took a heat gun to the sideart of my old Smash TV/Total Carnage cabinet and discovered that the entirety of the cab's covering (except for back and top) is a sticker that comes off relatively easily, and what I have uncovered so far is some very good looking wood. (I had to sand forever on my Ms. Pac cab... this makes me very excited about the next project).

Does anyone know any reason why this wood couldn't be stained instead of painted with latex, which is what I did on my last cab? Staining would be an interesting option to consider as I make plans for the cabinet.

[Donkbaca]

The only concern would be the wood not taking the stain evenly due to the adhesive soaking into the wood...

[Well Fed Games]

Thanks, makes sense. I guess i should uncover the whole thing before I make too many plans, make sure there are no surprises hiding under the black.

[pathartl]

I have a tri-sports cabinet that I did the same thing to, it's actually a WIP in my garage right now. I haven't stained it yet, but I found the adhesive was extremely tough to get off. Heating it and scraping with a putty knife did nothing, and no chemical would take it off. I ended up taking the cabinet outside and used a palm sander with 60 grit paper to take the adhesive off. I then used 100 grit paper to smooth it out a little, and then 150 to finish the sanding. I haven't begun to stain it yet, but mines down to the point where it feels like real wood.

Also, you may notice as I did that some of the graphics may seem stained into the wood itself, and that sanding will help, but it won't make it disappear. For mine I can only speculate that this machine was in the sun a little (would make sense, the black paint is actually a little brownish / looks washed out) and faded the cabinet some.

Good luck!

[Donkbaca]

I seriously doubt it will stain well.  on my cp, I was a little sloppy with the wood glue.  Later, despite cleaning the glue, wiping it down with mineral spirits, and sanding the wood, the stain still took the spots with wood at a different rate than the spots without it.

My suggestion is to get a gel stain, those don't penetrate the wood, but instead just lay on top of it.  If you are careful and patient, you can work the gel stain to get an even look.  Its going to be a pain though.

[Well Fed Games]

Thanks all for the input. In the end, I decided stain would be a bad way to go... once I got all the vinyl off, there were all sorts of spots (damaged areas-- I am still impressed by the plywood used) that ended up getting wood glue and bondo. I suppose starting from scratch would be a better approach for a woodgrain cabinet, or some woodgrain laminate.

[Well Fed Games]

Cut it down to a Wee-Cade and put black laminate on it.

The laminate is tempting, as I really don't want to paint this thing, I am considering the cost/effort involved as compared to paint.

Hell, I could cut a Smash TV cab down to like 4 Weecades, at least....

[pathartl]

Here's my cabinet when I first bought it:


Here it is with the decal stripped off and the wood sanded:


And here it is stained:


I still need to put a sealer on it, but I was having withdrawals and had to bring it back in the house . As you can see though, it turned out really well. There were some hidden damages underneath the decals, but it wasn't anything simple wood putty couldn't fix. I got out all of the scratches and everything too!

[paigeoliver]

I stripped a painted over galaxian once and stained it and the thing came out looking just as good as that tri sports cabinet.