Polycryllic question

[drillman88]

I made my son a baseball trophy display / bat holder for his birthday which is tommorow.I was going to finish with wipe on poly but due to my father-in-laws passing I got behind on the finishing.I managed to get a few minutes today to get it stained and was going to try and put 2 coats of polycryllic on it in the morning.When I have used this in the past I always put 1 coat of wipe on poly to seal the wood then sanded and put on the polycryllic to prevent grain raising.If I put the polycryllic over the stain without sealing will it raise the grain.I can seal with some spray shellac if needed but dont really want to.
Thanks for your help

[cabinetman]

The first coat of just about any film finish will need some light sanding before topcoating. If you use an off the shelf shellac that is de-waxed you will have a barrier coat, but that will need to be sanded. The problem with that shellac may be that you don't know how old it is. Old stuff may not dry (cure). If you mix your own you may have better luck.

I would rather just apply coats of the Polycrylic and lightly sand with 320x in between. If you can find the light grey silicon carbide sandpaper (intended to be used dry), that works great and doesn't load up. Even the clear shellac seems to add a hue to the ultimate finish. The Polycrylic induces no color. If you're spraying, use light coats. If you're brushing or wiping, don't load up the finish, or work the finish, just put it on and move on. It dries fairly fast and you can do several coats in a short period of time.

If you have used the Minwax Wipe On Poly, you might want to try the Minwax Polyurethane in place of the Polycrylic, it's heavier bodied.
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[drillman88]

Thanks for the reply,
Ive used the polycryllic before and like it because it dries so quickly I just have never used it directly on the wood because I was afraid of raising the grain.Its more of a time problem today.I will put some on some scrap in a few minutes to see what happens.
Gotta get some java down first.Can't seem to function without that stuff.Its my only vice besides buying to many tools.:

[drumpriest]

All water based finished will raise the grain, so you should pre-raise it. Just wipe it down with water, let it dry, give it a light sanding. I do this twice on some woods, then you'll have minimal grain raise with your water based topcoat. I personally no longer use Polycrylic, as I think it's one of the poorer water finishes. I used it for a short time before finding a place to get general finish's polyacrylic. I have used that, but now I use a spray acrylic "lacquer" USL, and it's awesome if you have the facilities to spray. Drys faster than the minwax stuff with a nicer result.

[drillman88]

I did the sample piece and it raised the grain very little but the look wasn't what I'm used to.So I mixed up the wipe on poly and put on the first coat.Before he received his gifts I showed him the shelf and told him I would rather it be late than not do it properly and he understood.He really liked the way it turned out.I will post a few pictures when done.