Staining Maple Issue

[darekc...@gmail.com]

Hello all, I have a staining question.
I have a maple bar rail that I recently installed, and I'm having a staining issue. After gluing it together and mounting it to the bar top, I finished sanded it to 400 grit. When I stained it, the curve section of the bar was much darker than the rest of the bar, but I could live with it. When I used a polyurethane top coat a day later, it ended up having a goop-ing effect that I then sanded down. I ended up sanding down the bar back to the wood (400 grit), and re-stained again. Now it's even lighter than before.

What can I do? Should I use a higher grit? multiple applications don't seem to matter.

[Leon]

Stop sanding at 180 and use a prestain/wood conditioner. Maple is
notorious for being difficult to stain and getting even
coverage/darkness. You may need to apply two coats of stain.

[dbalde...@gmail.com]

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Hate to say it, but I would strip the rail completely, sand 80 -> 120 -> 150 then re-stain. While I don't usually use a conditioner, that particular piece of wood might call for it..

[k...@notreal.com]

On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT), dbalde...@gmail.com
wrote:

>I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Gel stains help some, too.

[Doug Miller]

k...@notreal.com wrote in news:eogjadpkqldq0he1b...@4ax.com:

> On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT), dbalde...@gmail.com
> wrote:
>
>>I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where
I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second
spray is a light coat for colour.
>
> Gel stains help some, too.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

[Leon]

On 3/16/2018 10:27 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
> k...@notreal.com wrote in news:eogjadpkqldq0he1b...@4ax.com:
>
>> On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT), dbalde...@gmail.com
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where
> I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second
> spray is a light coat for colour.
>>
>> Gel stains help some, too.
>
> Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of projects, on
white oak. I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

A friend built a maple table for a customer and sanded, stained,
varnished and sanded to bare wood 3.5 times. It never looked bad until
he varnished.

Ultimately he bought a better sander and that solved half of his issues.

[Doug Miller]

Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote in
news:so-dnQKkdOzQxDDH...@giganews.com:

> On 3/16/2018 10:27 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
>> k...@notreal.com wrote in
>> news:eogjadpkqldq0he1b...@4ax.com:
>>
>>> On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT),
>>> dbalde...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a
>>>> spray/wipe/spray process where
>> I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess
>> away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.
>>>
>>> Gel stains help some, too.
>>
>> Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.
>
> I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of
> projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.
>
> Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.

[Leon]

Doug Miller <doug_at_mil...@example.com> wrote:
> Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet> wrote in
> news:so-dnQKkdOzQxDDH...@giganews.com:
>
>> On 3/16/2018 10:27 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
>>> k...@notreal.com wrote in
>>> news:eogjadpkqldq0he1b...@4ax.com:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:44:33 -0700 (PDT),
>>>> dbalde...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a
>>>>> spray/wipe/spray process where
>>> I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess
>>> away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.
>>>>
>>>> Gel stains help some, too.
>>>
>>> Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.
>>
>> I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of
>> projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.
>>
>> Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?
>
> Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.
>>

I to try not to stain. :-)
>

[Ed Pawlowski]

On 3/24/2018 12:16 AM, Leon wrote:

>>>>> Gel stains help some, too.
>>>>
>>>> Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.
>>>
>>> I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of
>>> projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.
>>>
>>> Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?
>>
>> Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.
>>>
>
> I to try not to stain. :-)
>>
>
>
>

Same here. Good latex paint covers in one coat.

[Leon]

Sure does! ;~)

[k...@notreal.com]

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 15:26:40 -0500, Leon <lcb11211@swbelldotnet>
wrote:

Easy cleanup, too. What's not to like?