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.