Staining & gluing help

I have never considered staining before gluing and probably wouldn’t even if the packagign said it would be OK. There is so much riding on a solid glue joint, why risk the integrity of the joints rather than excersing a little care and clean up?

-- Come on in, the beer is cold and the wood is dry. www.crookedlittletree.com

I agree with edp, if a joint isn’t quite up to snuff and sanding is required then you have to get the stain to match previous stained areas.

Stain before glue

-- Joel Tille

I wouldn’t stain before glue up unless the area will be a monster to do later and if so, I would tape up any area where glue will be applied before staining. If the joint is off a smiggin, like Joel suggested, then only a very little staining will be required to touch up such areas.

-- Jesus is Lord!

I tend to be a stain after glue person. There are only three instances where I will stain/finish first.

(1) When the project size would be hard to handle if it were stained/finished after glue up. Case in point is the set four almost eight foot tall bookshelves I am working on right now. I will be bursting at the seams in the shop until I can get the carcases in the house. I could not imagine trying to maneuver these monsters around for staining and finishing in my shop after they were assembled.

(2) When I don’t want one piece to stick to another. I there is a situation where I absolutely do not want one piece to stick to another piece, I will stain/finish first. The most often seen case of this is a solid wood panel in a frame and panel situation.

(3) When the look of the finished product may be jeopardized. This again is the case with frame and panel construction. I will almost always finish the panels before inserting them into the frames so when the contract with humidity changes I do not get a line where the finish ends.

Other than these situations, I much prefer stain/finish after I glue.

-- -- Rob Hix, King George, VA

I’m with Rob. There are some situations were I would stain first then glue, and like osconer said I would tape up the joints before staining.

Oh. I would like to add one more situation to Robs list. I have had some situations were I had to use two differents color stains on parts that has to be joined together.

-- A man who moves mountains starts one stone at a time.