Five doors “Finished”. Two to re-touch, and four to spray one more coat.
After the catastrophe of the swirling satin finish last week, I decided to change my approach with the polyurethane. I ended up spraying -much- less per coat yesterday. About half-way through, I realized I was spraying a bit too little, and started laying down more. The last five doors I did are done. They look great. The first four I did need another light coat (I’ll steel-wool & spray tonight), and the last two need a bit of work. I managed to fail at getting all the defects sanded out of the wood on those doors, and it’s showing in the stain. I can keep trying to tint the polyurethane with stain, and even out the colors, or I can just call it what it is, put some 80 grit in the belt sander, and start over.
I’m leaning toward the belt sander option. I’m going to finish up the panel, make sure it’s got a good clean coat on it, mask it off, sand down the front of the rails and stiles, then re-stain, and apply a few coats of polyurethane. I think that’s the only way to save these two doors. If this doesn’t work, then I’ll just have to make replacements. At $7 a door in raw materials, I can afford a few mistakes.