Hey, I was wondering if anyone had some feedback on how to stain plywood. I'm a relativly new wood worker so i was trying my skills on a pine, frame and panel cabinet. i talked to a home depot
guy and he said its impossible, then i talked to my aunt and she said you have to sand it between every coat, and then i talked to my dad's friend (contracter) and he said just put it on! i have no idea what to do!? I've put in 15+ hours on this what with tenons and such and i really don't want to mess it up now! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Plywood...the part you are staining anyway.....is just wood. It's a very thin layer (veneer) of wood....but it's wood just the same. Treat it as you would any other wood, but be wary that the veneer layer is very thin and you can sand through it.

Personally, if I HAD to stain it, I would use a pre-stain conditioner or shellac wash coat and a gel stain (afer doing a couple of test pieces first of course). My preference for pine is to use a coloured topcoat (tinted laquer) if you are set up to spray, bit I've also heard (but never tried it) that the minwax polyshades 2-in-1 stain and ploy works OK on pine.

The key to the whole thing is test coats.....pick what you think you'd like to try and do a few test samples before commiting to a process on your project.

Ryan Shervill

I have found sucess by thinning the (oil based) stain 50/50 with mineral spirits.

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