What did I do wrong?

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

Long time lurker who has started butchering wood to try to develop my skills.

So I am building a router table for shop. I stained the frame for the door to the router "cave" and came up with this bulls eye? Obviously, something is keeping the stain from penetrating. The wood is inexpensive popular from a big box store.

I had sanded the wood and used one of the pre stain conditioners on it.

Any suggestions for what happened? As this is a shop cabinet, it does not need to be perfect, but any easy ways to fix it?

Thanks

[Prashun Patel]

glue?......

[Bill White]

Looks like a spot of glue from what I can see.
BTW, it is POPLAR, not popular.
Glad to have ya with us.
Bill

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

Thanks for the replies. I like the glue theory.

Assuming it was glue, should I have just sanded it more? I would like to avoid this in the future.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the replies. I like the glue theory.

Assuming it was glue, should I have just sanded it more? I would like to avoid this in the future.


There are a few schools of thought on glue drips, squeeze-out and smears and how to deal with them. I suggest you absorb what everyone says and then find the method(s) that work best for you.

On softwoods like poplar or open-pore woods like red oak I never go the wet rag route. I find this makes more mess than it solves. As a matter of fact, the only time I run for a wet rag is when the mess is sooo bad that the recovery is going to be significant.

In your example, if I had noticed the glue spot I would have reached for a card scraper or a chisel; the scraper for spots that are barely there and the chisel for spots that are voluminous enough to make a bump. For squeeze-out I wait 30 minutes or so and remove the now leathery glue with a chisel.

Let the methods and variations discussion begin ;-)

[Phil Mueller]

+1 what Glenn said. Let the glue sit for 30 minutes or so, then scrape it off.
But the other thing you can do is wipe down the wood with denatured alcohol...it will help you see any dried glue spots, scratches, imperfections, etc, before you stain/finish.