Stain under Poly Question

[Snap Marc]

I have an oak project I'm building. I stained it well, dried, applied one coat of poly, allowed it to dry, now sanded with 220 to prep for a second coat of poly. While sanding, I sanded through a few spots of stain almost down to bare wood. Now I have a single sanded coat of poly with some spots that need a bit of stain touch ups.

Can I now apply stain while in the middle of my poly coats? How would I prevent this from happening again?

I sanded with 220 on a random orbital. Maybe I needed to hand sand, but it's a large project and would take forever.

Any insight would be just dandy.

Thanks!

[MikeMcCoy]

I don't know if this applies in your situation or not but I had a similar problem recently with Waterlox (tinted). I had a spot about 4 inches that literally would not adhere at all and almost acted like some kind of contaminant was on the wood. I put a light coat of clear shellac and then put the Waterlox over that. The point being that your stain should work over that but longer term, you might have a change in color develop.

[Snap Marc]

I don't have anything preventing the absorption of the stain, I just accidentally sanded through a few spots down to the raw wood.

I'm between coats of poly and want to apply some stain to fix my mistakes.

So essentially, I just want to know if I can add stain between coats of poly?

[mschrank]

I did something similar once...got a little too aggresive and sanded through the stain on the edge of a piece. I reapplied stain to the area, let it dry, and continued adding poly.

You should be fine, since the the wood will take the stain but the surrounding poly won't (much).

If possible, I would skip sanding that first coat of poly. You can get away with it if you apply the second coat of poly as soon as the first coat has dried to the touch.

Otherwise, hand sanding shouldn't take that long, even on a large project. As you've found, it's pretty tough with a ROS...a 1/4 sheet palm sander might be a better choice if absolutely have to go the powered route. You don't have to sand much, just enough to put some scratches in the poly for the next coat to adhere to. One or two passes over each area by hand is plenty...maybe a bit harder if you're trying to get rid of dust nibs.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I don't have anything preventing the absorption of the stain, I just accidentally sanded through a few spots down to the raw wood.

I'm between coats of poly and want to apply some stain to fix my mistakes.

So essentially, I just want to know if I can add stain between coats of poly?

Yes, it will be fine. Where you sanded down to bare wood, ie the area that needs the stain anyway, will take the stain. Then wipe off surrounding area.

As to why this happened, you generally can't power sand between the first and second coat. You should be using the 220 by hand.

[Greg.B]

Since you have bare wood the stain should take.

What I like to do for sanding in between coats is to use a foam sanding block, it does a great job, and doesn't allow you to get to aggressive. I've learned that you just need to scuff at best the surface, and remove some of the imperfections that dried in the prior coat.