The only thing I can think of that may have made it work would have been to apply a seal coat of clear shellac over the stain and then cover with the poly. A lot of extra work just to combine the two.
But that is live and learn. At least you were able to come to a workable conclusion. ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Vos To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 10:57 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] My conclusions about milky color in polyurathane A few weeks ago I wrote about the trouble I was having with milky streaks in the polyurethane I was putting on a dresser. After several rounds of this my wife was almost afraid to tell me she could see more streaks. I had put a water base stain on the dresser. Everything I read told me I could put polyurethane over water base stains. And yes, the stain had dried for several days before I put the polyurethane on. The curious thing is that my wife only saw the milky streaks on the horizontal surfaces. My solution finally, was to coat this project with polycrylic, which is a water base finish. It turned out very good. A couple weeks later I put polyurethane over oil base stain, and had no trouble at all. My conclusion is that, despite what I've read, I will never put polyurethane over a water base stain again. Now, I'm waiting to hear how many of you have put polyurethane over water base stain without having the trouble I did. Blessings, Tom [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
