DIY Project – Upcycling Our Kitchen Cabinet Doors – Phase 2 – Sanding & Finishing – Part 1

After finishing the routing of the door frames, I sanded down 40 oak inserts and glued them into the screw holes.  I needed for the glue to dry, so I would just sand the front and sides of the frames.  I waited until the following day to finish sanding.

I went upstairs to the kitchen and removed the cabinet doors and its hardware.  Downstairs I went with the cabinet doors to cut them down for the panels.  Every time I cut down the panels, I remind myself after the fact to wear a dust mask.  The panels are just MDF board with an oak veneer.  The fine dust created by the MDF board gets into my lungs and I cough it up all day.  Nasty.

Once I had the panels cut, sanded and corners rounded over, I was ready for finishing.

When I used the new stain the first time, I discovered that I needed to brush on the poly.  Using a poly that wipes on strips the stain from the wood.  However, the brush-on poly was creating bubbles.  I applied several coats of the brush-on poly and finished the doors with the wipe on poly. 

I decided that I would use the brush-on poly for the first coat to “set” the stain and follow up with two coats of the wipe on.  After I put my first coat of the brush-on poly, I noticed that there were no bubbles, except for runs where I put too much on.  I used steel wool this time between coats, which worked a lot better.  I started with my first door panel.  I was getting some resistance as I moved the rag with poly across the door.  The poly was wiping off the stain. How could that be?  Two possible answers: (1) I needed to wait overnight to apply my next coat, not 4 hours, or (2) I needed more than one coat of brush on poly to “set” the stain.  Nevertheless, the panel needed to be sanded down and re-stained.  Before I could do that, I needed for the poly on the panel to dry.

So, I went back to the brush-on poly for my next coat.  Maybe I could continue using the brush-on poly since I did not get any bubbles.  I will see tomorrow.

I brushed on the final coats of poly on the doors, then I sanded and stained the panel that I ruined.  I had a rough finish on some spots on the frames after my final coat. However, the panels were fine.  I bought super fine steel wool.  It could be used on the final coat to smooth out the finish.  I was tentative using it.  My fear is it might change the satin finish to a glossy finish.  I decided to use a putty knife to knock off some of the bumps.  It seemed to work, but I was a little too aggressive and shaved some poly off the edge on one frame.  I was ready to assemble at least 3 doors.  I needed to get 3 coats of poly on the lone panel before I could assemble the door.

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