There are a number of wood preparation and finishing errors on the project below. At some point, I’ve made them all and learned my lessons the hard way. I can tell you that prior to staining, boards always felt smooth and looked ready to turn a beautiful shade of whatever stain I was going to apply.
Problem #01: Improper edge treatment and not enough glue.
For your glue project, having straight and crisp edges will make your joins look flawless. The brighter lines above are excessive glue. A few of the challenges include:
Have square edges. You’ll need to trim off the rounded or eased edges of the boards. This can be done by running your boards through a table saw and trimming off the eased edges.
Boards aren’t true. If you set your board on a level table or place your level along the edge and can see any light your board aren’t true. A power jointer will make short work of cupping and warping. There are some ways to true your lumber with your router and table saw. With a router, clamp a straight edge to the board and run a router down the length which will trim the cupped edges off it (this works for the short section of the board). Similarly, you can create a jig for your table saw using a squared board against the rip fence.
Problem #02: Glue doesn’t stain well.
See the lighter streaks!? After you’ve glued your project together, you’ll want to wipe away any of the excess glue that comes through. Damp blue shop towels work great and reduce the amount of work you’re going to need. You’ll want to scrape and sand that glue away as glue does not take stain well.
Problem #03: Sander Chatter Marks.
Those lovely arcs are from a sander and can be practically invisible until stain is added. With orbital sanders, just make sure you aren’t placing a spun-up sander onto the board. If you don’t do it gently and level, you could catch the edge and cause it to chatter along the board.
Problem #04: The wood didn’t take the stain evenly.
Use a wood conditioner like Minwax Pre-Stain. It ensures a smooth even stain pickup by the wood. It stops certain woods from soaking up to much color (getting over dark). Thinning a top coat could also work, but I save that for wood end-grains.
